Dreaming of runningDreaming of running

During states of deep concentration, often during extended repetitive actions, usually running, I can look down and see my naked black feet striding over dry grass sometimes, sometimes over the barren earth. I become aware of my breathing then, inhaling deep and blowing, nostrils wide, lungs strong, mouth open, lost in thought in this form also, somewhere else through the repetition of running. I am aware of the others running on both sides of me. We run together for the same purpose. They are also dark skinned, and like myself, somewhere else while their bodies exert. We run for hours over long distances.

Sometimes when I dance, flashes of a fire, other dancers dancing, and similarities of rhythm snap deep within my unconscious mind. Music and movement combine within the psychically linked group. Our movements are different, but complementary. The ecstatic, hypnotic transcendence of the moment supercedes all. The connection from that past strikes my conscious world like lightning. The whole world shrinks in, and for a split second, the divinity of the universe can be glimpsed. Only for an instant. Still, the impact is profound.

For some reason, I had never really given much thought as to the validity of these flashes; rather, I have accepted them quietly. Although I could not always articulate my response to these occurrences, there has never been any doubt that they exist in my mind for a reason. And, if they are in my subconscious, but not others, there is a reason for that, too. I’ve joked about it in the past, something to the effect that, yeah I was black in a past life; I just kept the lips this time around. And whatever it is that snaps in my mind.

But I do believe I’ve run before.