A Run in Paris

I went running this morning in Paris. The air was biting and the sunshine warmed nothing. It only illuminated things to come in a very gentle way. I made passes through trees and parks, under the shadow of Mansions and in the wide open light of streets facing to the east. What was amazing was that for as much energy as I was expressing, the city was throwing twice as much back at me. Businessmen and woman hurried off with important things under their arms. Cups of coffee sat empty on café tables next to withered cigarettes, abandoned for the office today.

Living and thinking in Paris is unique because Kate and I seem to share our own secret world. Even on trains, next to people who clearly speak english, we move undetected through our words. I feel renewed in my pursuit of a life philosophy.

That is perhaps what I'm learning most from this trip. I am here in pursuit of a philosophy for how I am to live my life. In the states, I pursued a material comfort in routines and in familiarity. But here, where those things have not been found, I am thrown to my mind and my own observation. I am beginning to find my way in this world, and how I fit in it. Yes, there is still a material beauty in this experience- cafés and parks, the Eifel tower (which just struck me with a stereotypical Parisian beauty)- but I'm really starting to develop something immaterial.

I went on a run in Paris. Passed by lives and beauty all the while, I was progressing. I am still upon that run.