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SACRED RUN 2006 Alcatraz Island to Washington,
D.C.
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Sacred Run 2006 - Week 2 Reflections... Reflections on this page are by sacredrun.org websteward, Roger Straw, unless noted otherwise... |
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Day 10, Feb.
20 Other weeks Week
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Day
10 - Monday, February 20, 2006 I’ve been on the road, ahead of the Sacred Runners and Walkers, holed up in Albuquerque, tending to my other web sites. Unfortunately, my other work makes me a part-time Sacred Walker.
I had a fascinating conversation about this with Marcus somewhere between Parker and Phoenix, in Arizona. He, along with maybe a half dozen others on this Sacred Run, have been going on these ceremonial journeys for years. In order to do so, they’ve given up all kinds of things, not least of which is a regular income. Family relationships have suffered. And they have endured extreme weather, hunger, sleeplessness, pain and discomfort. And they’ve come out stronger, and their witness has had a profound effect on people all around the world. What makes people do this!? The decision to participate, knowing the costs, cannot be easy for anyone steeped in the comforts of an affluent life or even a lower to middle class lifestyle. I asked one of our Australian runners, Marcus, why do you walk and run, again and again, sacrificing yourself? I’ve asked him to write his own statement for these pages, which I hope he completes soon, so I won’t presume to speak for him, or to sum up his answer. But my eyes were opened a bit as we talked.
Soooo, anyway..... Next time I’m sleeping on a hard gymnasium floor, or feeling the wind burn my face, or freezing, or staying up late to plan tomorrow's route for the Sacred Walkers, I will remind myself that pain and endurance is sometimes redemptive. The gifts of self-neglect we give the world bear fruit. We pay the price, and the fruit is often invisible, a thing of Spirit, a light breeze against the powers that be, but a breeze that sometimes mysteriously joins with the breezes of others in the struggle, and becomes a mighty wind that blows to the Four Directions, and makes the Circle one again. That’s my prayer with every step on today’s journey.
A couple of days ago I was asked to write something about why I walk / run and why I have joined this Sacred Run from San Francisco to D.C. There are many many reasons WHY and it is hard to explain many of them without writing something about my life for the last 12 years. In 1993 Dennis Banks came to Australia with Sacred Run, I had heard about this event through my involvement with some Aboriginal people from around the Melbourne area in Victoria. I decided to take a couple of weeks off work and join them, within a week I found myself feeling (for the first time) that I was doing something that I completely believed in. We finished the run in late November after 2 months, and by February I was in San Francisco to join the Walk for Justice!!! (San Francisco – D.C.) During the Walk for Justice I met Jun San (a Japanese Buddhist Nun with Nipponzan Myohoji) her order was organizing a 9 month Peace Walk from Auschwitz to Hiroshima for the 50th Anniversary of World War 2, this was to start 5 months after the Walk for Justice was finishing. With a few smaller Sacred Runs in between I left for Auschwitz in early December 1994. Staying inside this Concentration Camp for 7 days where millions were killed is a haunting memory that still lives with me. We were there with people who had been prisoners, and also the realities of people who did not survive, along with SS guards and many others. From there we walked through Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia during the war, as the Peace Walk continued to Iraq, I left to join Sacred Run again for a 2 month run through Japan, which would have this walk and run met in Hiroshima on August 6th 1995 for the 50th Anniversary of Hiroshima & Nagasaki.
Ever since 1993, I have continued to join Sacred Run and to Walk with Nipponzan Myohoji in many parts of the world. During these last 12 years I have been fortunate to meet some of the most amazing and inspiring people. People who have spent decades working for Peace and Social Change, people who have lost their partners, their children, their friends, and yet they still continue to do all they can to keep the struggle for World Peace alive.
Sacred Run is what first opened my eyes to a much larger world, and led me to many other organizations doing similar things. I am honored to be back on Sacred Run again, with lots of old friends who took the time to teach me so much when I was first getting involved in the struggle, and also opened my life up to spirituality and a belief that WE can make change. We must go further than just talking about the changes that need to happen, we need to take action, to connect with more and more people, and to create ways for more people to become actively involved in creating Peace and making social change. Only a true sense of spirituality can make it possible for us to stop destroying the environment, and stop us from taking advantage of other people lives and be more concerned with the welfare of EVERYONE instead of just thinking of ourselves. I will continue to do this for as long as I can walk or run, to honor all those who have given everything, including there lives and their freedom. To become spiritually stronger myself and to help keep the movement for peace and social change alive. Peace & Solidarity Day
12 - Wednesday, February 22, 2006
When we started February 11th, from Alcatraz, on our way to Washington, D.C., we had hoped our journey would take us on a path that would bring new friends, new ideas and new challenges. So far our expectations have been surpassed by such overwhelming numbers it staggers the mind. Not only have we met new friends, but all our old friends are coming out to greet us along the roads, community centers, cafes, gas stations, and in tribal offices.
- Dennis J. Banks P.S. ..and for future running events, stay packed. Day 15 - Saturday, February 25, 2006
Sacred runners and walkers keep coming and leaving. In the last two days we've said good bye to Chari and Akiko, Rogelio, Raquel, and farewell again(!) to Julie and Charlie. And we welcomed back Wounded Knee and Joel, along with Joel's brother Tony, sister-in-law Holly, and little Echo. Larry (B.G.) also returned. And we received new runners/walkers, Max, Satori, Matoska, and a few others whose names I don't have yet. (We are working on a complete roster for you. We will post it as soon as we can, along with interviews of many Sacred Runners and Walkers.)
Another great story - in the early morning hours of Day 12, Wednesday, February 22, one of our Sacred Runners, Ryuji "Chari" Sakata ran 50 miles! He began at 1:08am and ran from Socorro, NM to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, arriving at 1:15pm. Go Chari! (Someone has promised me a pic of Chari running that night. I'll post it here sometime soon.) What a powerful witness for Land, Life and Peace! |
Sacred Run Here are Donation Forms you can print, |
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We
all need to respect, affirm, and take care
of ourselves. But self-care is challenged by
the historic struggles that affect us personally,
and by the horrors of a violent and unjust
world. If we all gave in to the pursuit of
personal pleasures and self-embracing happiness,
who would speak and work for justice? Who would
call for peace? Who would challenge the root
causes of poverty and rise up in solidarity
for freedom and economic parity?
