Quite a month for distractions both good and bad so I’ve only increased my total to 33 days or about 198 miles since starting on the summer solstice.
The month was always going to have the good distraction of a week in Stourbridge at the Nourishing Happiness retreat. Here I got to walk and practice each day but not in a way that counts towards my totals. After Stourbridge we had four monastics visiting to give a public talk on Wednesday 30th. Looking after the monastic brothers and sisters knocked another three days out of my walking schedule.
The unplanned distraction was a some dental work. I was getting pain in my teeth and had to have a wisdom tooth pulled. The following day I stayed in bed to look after my body as I was feeling rotten. Following one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s classic teachings I am now enjoying my non-toothache. I wonder how long I’ll remember how pleasant a neutral feeling is.
I was pleased to see that there was no big festival event held in St Andrews square this year.
On Monday 7th August I had another of the sights that seem to stick in my mind. Because of the crowds I vary my route and walk the road way up the Mound rather than up the Playfair Steps. Amongst the mayhem of the festival a taxi was stopped with the door open and a man was slumped inside looking, to my eyes, dead – but definitely unconscious. Two police motorcyclists had coned the taxi off. One policeman was talking to another passenger. One was on the radio. As I passed a paramedic motorcyclist turned up. The fact that no one was trying to revive or help the slumped passenger made me think they had given up on him but perhaps it was just severe heart burn and he is fine now.
This is the third of the little vignettes I have in my mind for this area of town over the last couple of years. There was the person lying in front of a bus by the old BHS shop, the person having CPR at the top of Playfair Steps and now the man in the taxi. I sometimes have the urge to sketch these little moments of stillness within the movement of the city.
September should be a more straight forward month for walking. There is the Project Soothe Exhibition launch but otherwise I’m working regular hours.
Marathon Monk Posts by Date
- Marathon Monk: Back story
- Lay Pedestrian meets Marathon Monk
- Lay Pedestrian resolves to mug Marathon Monk
- Setting Off on Project Marathon Monk
- Marathon Monk Index
- Marathon Monk: June 2017 – 8 days & 48 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk and the Pointless Pole
- Marathon Monk: July 2017 – 22 days & 132 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: August 2017 – 33 days & 198 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: September 2017 – 47 days & 282 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: October 2017 – 62 days & 372 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: November 2017 – 78 days & 468 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: December 2017 – 89 days & 534 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: January 2018 – 97 days & 582 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: February 2018 – 112 days & 672 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: March 2018 – 125 days & 750 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: April 2018 – 137 days & 822 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: May 2018 – 152 days & 912 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: June 2018 – 166 days & 996 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: July 2018 – 182 days & 1,092 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: August 2018 – 199 days & 1,194 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: September 2018 – 217 days & 1,302 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: October 2018 – 233 days & 1,398 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: November 2018 – 248 days & 1,488 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: December 2018 – 258 days & 1,548 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: January to March 2019 – 281 days & 1,686 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: April 2019 – 301 days & 1,806 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: May & June 2019 – 323 days & 1,938 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: July 2019 – 340 days & 2,040 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: August 2019 – 358 days & 2,148 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: September-November 2019 – 399 days & 2,394 mindful miles
- Marathon Monk: To 23rd March 2020 – 441 days & 2,646 mindful miles & into Covid-19 Lockdown