today’s passage: he talks about the need of being near water, how clouds float over, pretty harvard runner girls and their vitality, running shoes, and toxins of writing

i do think that writing can get really heavy, especially if you’re writing something of substance. it really does take a lot out of you. when i binge write, it hurts my brain. i always inevitably want to a drink after, to relax and numb myself a bit. maybe good writing doesn’t come from drinking but the other way around. the picture of the suffering artist, i don’t want to be that. and yoga, daily, really is good for the writing brain. especially the 10-15 mins i get before of just pure quiet, laying there on the studio floor, letting my thoughts collect on me but then also being able to let it go, not care for that hour. but the drive home, different story sometimes.

found the part where he talks about counterbalancing the toxin that arises when you write. and doing yoga/working out daily really does do that. i felt so much better when i prioritized it. felt much less drained. if only i could spend my life just working out and writing. but that’s hard, so maybe just 1 or 2 months at a time in vn every half year could help that. i really have no social life there and everything is very calm although in a hectic city, i like the balance it brings. also i am never alone, in vietnam i get pockets of alone time that eventually result in thoughts that have been buried finally given the space to bubble up.

quotes:

…like it or not, a toxin that lies deep down in all humanity rises to the surface.

an unhealthy soul requires a healthy body…

today’s passage: about him being back in japan for 2 weeks

it made me feel both demotivated and motivated to read that there are just some people with innate writing talent, i think me not being one of them. i have to work hard at learning or getting good at almost anything. i find doing something every day is helpful. even just for 10 minutes, but it takes time. time i don’t have.

i did like the concept of never going more than two days of not exercise. i feel this is true, my body becomes stiff and i feel like i’m starting over if i have even a 3 to 4 day break from yoga or at least some sort of working out.

it’s pretty nice and crazy to have a connection to people you don’t know but pass by each day, like in the case of people you see all the time on a course, is there anybody like that for me? i do feel a sense of ‘something’ with our kempton neighbors, although i really don’t know them all that well. what about the people across the street at piedmont place?

should i try to write 3-4 hours a day, that’s pretty crazy, and yea i don’t think i have the mental or physical stamina right now. maybe just start with 30 mins? and i’m not sure, is there an activity i can tie back to writing like how he does running. he said when he passes by long distance runners they all look like they are thinking something. i get the complete opposite sense, they all look really miserable, but maybe those are just the beginners…

memorable quote: none really in this passage…

today’s passage: he writes about last days of august in hawaii (2005) and when he ran from marathon to athens

i really related to the physicalness of what he was talking about when running. that if you workout enough or are active enough something happens in your body, it becomes in tune with what it needs, it starts craving healthy food, or just being healthy. i feel so much better when i push myself, i never used to. i just used to do yoga which doesn’t really get your heart rate pumping or muscles aching. not that it isn’t hard, it’s just that your body needs more, everything. just hard to find time to do everything. i had to give up a lot of other things in exchange for working out and going to yoga every day. i recently started going to slightly harder classes, like hot pilates and even sculpt and found that i did like it after, if i could give myself the push and get myself into the routine to go. i actually feel healthier in my older age, believe it or not.

i really liked how while writing about running in greece, he was focused on the bodycount of animals. maybe that’s the skill of being hyper aware, i admire that, even though in the moment i’m not sure if he was thinking all those things, but maybe start to notice things more and then process by writing. would i have remembered the dogs and cats under such duress? but i don’t think he was quite under duress at that point.

and yea weird people only do things for the photos… (magazine photographer say most people don’t run the whole thing, they just do enough for the photo for the article)

the funniest thing was when he started talking about how mad he was getting near the end (p.65), totally true, when you are under pressure you’re just mad at everything. i hadn’t generally felt this until recently tho, hormones really bring it out of ya.

memorable quotes:

A little further on I run across a cat that’s been flattened by a car. The cat is totally flat, like some misshapen pizza…

My whole body starts to sting from the salty residue. When I lick my lips they taste like anchovy paste.

I’m covered with salt, a veritable human salt field.