Breathing Easier

Editor's note: This essay first appeared on Oct. 14, 1981 in the Brick Town News, Brick Township. The writer was a reporter, editor, and photographer for the weekly newspaper. It was written in anticipation of his first vacation, a little more than a year into the job.

Writing and running and rhythmetic. Yeah, breathing easy now, I've got this licked.
I've been here going on 14 months, now. Except for a long weekend here and there, It's been a year of week-in, week-out go-round in the hustling, bustling Town News newsroom.
It's time to catch a second breath.
Writing? That's right: Denis J. Kelly, staff writer, editor, hometown journalist. Mostly of portraits of people who make up Brick Township.
It is exciting, I'll grant you that. You do everything, from start to finish, from reporting to photography to deciding where a story will go in the paper to writing the headlines.
Oh, you're not Mike Wallace, or anything like that.
But, you can sort of  be like Charles Kuralt, traveling down hometown roads, meeting people, observantly.
Running? That's right, Denis J. Kelly, runner. In-between chasing down stories, you can find me chasing down that dream to remain an athlete for life. And as a runner, I climb aboard a perfect platform to observe the bounty of nature.
I'm partial to those special days each season, when you feel the quintessence of the next season: those cool days of late August, frosty days of November, toasty days of March and scorching days of May.
And to the tree canopies along Carroll Fox Road, the rolling Herbertsville hills, enchanting Ocean County Park, and twice around Lake Carasaljo.
And to prances along the oceanfront Jersey Shore boardwalks, where the hypnotic crash of the waves lulls you into a trance, mile after mile.
If only I could plug my reporter's notebook into the runner's inner thoughts during a good run -- running is really a thought game -- I could be up there on the library shelves with the likes of James Joyce.
The trick is to learn to relax, to relax even while you are running.
To tune into your legs: the muscles, the tendons, and to remain loose.
To drink in the oxygen-rich air as if it were an elixir.
To roll your neck every now and again, and to drop your forearms periodically, because that is where the tension pools.
And to think that if it were not for the incidentals, like the friction of the air and ground, and growing fatigue, you could run on forever.
Now count to 10 -- v e r y  s l o w l y -- and relax.
Writing and running and rhythmetic. Yeah, breathing easier now, I've got this licked.
See you next week.

For Searching For Goodness
Denis J. Kelly
April 9, 2011