Anamnesis

Today whilst driving in Exeter I found myself outside of B&Q, nothing unremarkable about that except.... I was meant to be at Homebase. I remember trying to find B&Q twelve years ago when we first moved to Exeter, now I can just drive there without thinking - almost on auto pilot except today I drove there without thinking, without actually wanting to go there. A sign of my age or something else?

It has been amazing recently because more than thirty people have signed up for the beginners' running group 'couch to 3 miles', the idea is that they go from not running at all to running 3 miles without stopping, all within ten weeks. We run 3 times a week and each time for thirty minutes, we started off walking 2 minutes and running a 1 minute and then keep increasing the ratio of running to walking until, as if by magic, the person ends up running - they are doing brilliantly and it is so encouraging to see them turn up and give so much effort EVERY time. It is hard and it has been wet and cold but doing it together and doing it in this way will make it attainable for just about everyone.

I remember something startling about Haruki Murakami's book 'What I talk about when I talk about running', he said that his muscles have memory, they remember each and every workout and they like the rest of the body need to be  persuaded that they can keep going, that they can achieve that they are already able but you just need to tell them, remind them.


Anamnesis is a Greek word, used in the New Testament, which means 'reminiscence', it is often used in reference to the Last Supper, the night before Jesus' crucifixion. That idea, in turn, is taken from the ancient Jews who, as they remembered so what they remembered was re-enacted almost in a literal sense. As they re-enacted the Passover each year so the reality of them understanding God's saving grace was brought into the future and celebrated not for what he had done but what was still being done.

As I drove to B&Q a lot went through my mind and my muscles!

The best way to get good at running is to run. There are no short cuts to this, it is in running that we become runners. Or perhaps it is in running that we remember we already are runners, we wake up that something within us that was there all along and gently coach and persuade it to life.

May all that we are learn the ways of being and doing far within our history and our physicality in ways that draw out all that is possible within us. May all that we are and all that we do celebrate and remember what already is good and gradually remember it to life.