songs of experience

I keep returning to church and God in this blog. Maybe its because my running has always been a form of prayer, so its impossible for me to write about my running life without at least gesturing toward my faith. According to the Catholic calendar, the church is currently experiencing “ordinary time.” Oddly enough, ordinary time is my favorite time of year … but what, exactly, is it?

Theologian, Paul Turner, writes, “Ordinary Time, the longest portion of the church year, fills the weeks which do not celebrate a specific aspect of the mystery of Christ. It’s the no-particular-reason season. The Christmas cycle honors the birth of Christ. The Easter cycle rejoices in the resurrection. Ordinary Time is devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects.”

That might be the technical definition, but I like to think of ordinary time as the daily rituals of regular life. The quotidian moments. No feasts or gifts or celebrations or parties. No guests or visitors. No rushing to get anywhere. Just hanging out in my pj’s at home, drinking a second cup of coffee (reheated in the microwave because I put the first hot cup down somewhere and forgot about it), playing board games with the girls after homework is done, folding half a basket of laundry, eating spaghetti noodles, with butter and salt, again for dinner (”white spaghetti”) because I just don’t feel like going to the grocery store … not answering the phone, reading around in 3-4 books yet never finishing any of them, watching old movies, cleaning out closets, forgetting to comb my hair (my dad used to call it “frog fur” when I was little), listening to the birds outside, or the wood-stove popping inside … being still, still, and listening.

And after the stillness, stirring to run. Sometimes I don’t even put on “proper” running clothes; I just get in the car and drive to the nearest trail and run. Alone or with friends, it doesn’t matter. I’m not training for anything specific so I could run for 20 minutes or 90, depending on how I feel. Intervals or jogging. No pressure to perform. It’s just ordinary running. During ordinary time.

The next season of celebration, with all its attendant busy-ness and noise, will come soon enough. Enjoy the peace and quiet of the no-particular-reason season.