Set Yourself Free

The other day, I slipped in a few moments to read from the June 2012 issue of Self magazine (They have some good stuff in there!!). I indulged myself in an article excerpted from Marie Tillman's book The Letter: My Journey Through Love, Loss and Life. She is the widow of Pat Tillman, the NFL player who enlisted in the Army post 9/11 and was killed in Afghanistan less than three months after his arrival.

She wrote about later finding her husband's copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson's collected writings and coming across an underlined passage that leaped out at her. Indeed, it leaped at me, too:

"Be not a slave to your own past."

That totally struck a chord with me. What a huge concept to consider. What a statement of personal freedom.

I've thought about this statement many times over since reading it, and I will continue to ponder it. While so applicable in many ways in my every day in my life, I know I will apply it to who I am as a runner again and again and again. Including tomorrow morning. See you after I'm out there.