Comfort Zones

I watched a girl run in circles today. Literally.

I was sitting in a courtyard square eating a banana, enjoying my recently queued podcast, while relishing in the 30 minute break I had away from German grammar.

She was a runner. I could tell. She had all the fancy gear - leggings that clung tightly to her sculpted quads, shoes that were very clearly a chunk of my pay-check and a confidence that proved she’d done this a time or dozen before.

It was a gorgeous Thursday morning - not too cold, not too warm - just right.

One could say it was the perfect day for running.

But to my surprise, she didn’t run far - far being only within the same, outlined square over and over again.

This square is quite small, in fact that’s why I frequent it.

It lovely, I won’t lie, but, I know for a fact, having walked this area a dozen times, there are far prettier things just outside this square that she was entirely missing, running like she was in her heavily-orchestrated circles around the square - over and over again.

I think that’s us sometimes.

How often do we get so comfortable, so used-to our “normal” that we forsake all else that lies beyond our every- day sense of “ordinary?”

Maybe it’s our schedules, our morning routines, appointments, or even things so simple as feeding the dog.

But maybe it’s also: our beliefs, our social circles, our education & our media.

If you venture just a few blocks north of this square, you’ll find a castle, fit with a courtyard of fountains.

South, you’ll run into the prettiest (flattest - a runner’s dream) street, heavily shaded by the prettiest of fall blooms.

East or west…

you get my point.

Beyond the square, laid so much more - so much to see and and so much more to experience.

Sometimes we get so stuck in the same routine…thoughts…motions that we forget to venture outside our squares.

To challenge our normal

To consider what life is like outside of the square

To even consider what we might looks like for others that look in on us running

in our same, routine circles

She ran and she ran hard, never missing a step or stopping to catch a breath.

Isn’t that the way it goes?

She was so comfortable here. Heck, I was too. It was familiar and it was safe.

Nothing could ever go too wrong under the blue sky, fenced boundaries of this small square in the city.

So she stayed, and I stayed - both content in our chosen steps (my lack there of) and afternoon routines.

We all have our squares, our boxes of comfort or definition - the outlines of what we are, who we are and what we believe.

But oh how freeing it would be, to just for a moment, take a step beyond the cobblestones laid under our feet towards the paved roads of someone else’s “normal” or “ordinary.”

Respect for a life that’s not your own, an understanding of culture or a newfound political understanding, results only through venturing beyond -

beyond our pride, our amenity and our biases.

A respect for the life of others gives and leads to wonderful reason to respect our own.

Maybe she loved this square the most. Maybe this square felt like home.

Like comfort. Like peace.

Maybe she found it herself.

Maybe someone showed her the way.

However she got here or why she stayed -

I will never know.

But I do know,

that it takes a lot running to figure out your favorite places.

AND if you never leave the same ole squares, all you’ll ever do is run in circles.

— and humans were not made to live as though hamsters on a wheel.

So today, I challenge you (namely myself) to run.

Dare to be uncomfortable. Dare to venture into something new.

And never, ever judge a run by the first mile.