About a year ago I started reading the book “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami. The book is a series of essays about the ritual of running as well as the parallels and the impact it has had on Murakami’s process as a writer.

Over the last few months, work has mushroomed to the outer limits of my free time. Reading a book about running only evoked a fresh guilt about the lack of fresh foods, exercise, and overall healthy habits in my daily life. Naturally, it was only when I started exercising again that I found myself back in with this book and feeling smug.

I digress.

It has come to my attention that many of the writers/memoirists that I feel most drawn to are people who practice their own self-motivated rituals.

Murakami, as I have mentioned, runs. He approaches running in a holistic way. His body is a vessel to be molded by determination. It is his will that allows him to achieve what is beyond his existing abilities. In a way, it is a metaphor for the perseverance and patience that is required to create something that is meaningful and beautiful. To bring something that is out of reach into existence. For more pragmatic purposes, it allows him the singular focus he needs as a writer- an important component of any creative process.

Patti Smith spends much of M Train in Cafe ‘Ino, drinking coffee. She talks to the barista, she writes and draws. The coffee shop feels like a church; community, creation, and a reverence fit only for the most precious, delicious commodity given to the most tired and unfocused sinners: coffee.

David Sedaris copes with his OCD by spending hours a day picking up garbage from the side of the road. It earned him an invitation to Buckingham Palace. What has your mental disorder done for you lately?

It’s true that I have taken up this ritual of documenting my life, but while I read about Murakami’s training as a runner I feel a desire to introduce something new into my routine. Last week, I got a bike for my birthday. I rode across the city,  struck with a deep admiration for the lake as the sun was setting in cotton candy hues above the water. I have always been in awe of the vastness and calm of large bodies of water. I can’t help but feel moronic for not taking advantage of how close I am to the lake. I know that I must make it my routine to spend regular time near lakes, oceans, and maybe a few mountains whenever possible.

Most of all, I am curious to see how embracing routine (mundane, active, or life-enriching) will change my life over time. I am not interested in being comfortable. I’m not interested in gunning through each day, working endlessly towards an undetermined goal. I want what Murakami works towards incremental changes for long term results.

30 Minute Playlist – Ritual 1

Pictures of the week:

^ you lift very slowly one black tree, and place it against the sky: slender, alone.

And you have made the world.

(From Entrance by Rainer Maria Rilke)

^Weekend music and totally natural plant and my brand new Swedish mug from my cousin Jenny

^ Cheesy baked dough. melted cheese, you are the key to my heart

^my beautiful and talented friend Janni