allow him to connect with himself and his higher power. Kay, author of Running: The Sacred
Art, believes that, “Running is the new yoga,” and notes that spiritual traditions have embraced running as a sacred vessel for centuries. In the village of Mount Hiei, Japan, members of a small Buddhist sect, known as the Marathon Monks, engage in a grueling, seven-year challenge in which seekers run as many as 50 miles a day in 100-day blocks in pursuit of enlightenment. In Tibet, the Lung-gom-pa runners use multi-day running journeys as their meditative practice. In Copper Canyon, Mexico, 50-mile barefoot races across the rugged desert comprise an integral part of the Tarahumara Indians’ spiritual fabric. For Kay’s sought-after class, The Spirituality of Running, students read scripture from the religious tradition of their choice, and then go for a run, using the time to reflect on what they read. Or, they run first, and then come back to journal their thoughts. Across the country, at the Shamb- hala Mountain Center, in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, 51-year-old Marty Kibiloski, an Ironman veteran, com- bines Buddhist teachings with trail runs during a three-day running meditation retreat. “What we are trying to show is that you can overlay the practice of medita-
tion onto so many aspects of your life, not just sitting on a cushion,” says Kibiloski. He once lived what he called, “… a high achievement, low satisfaction life,” as a competitive marathoner, but has evolved a less competitive, more thoughtful pace in both his running and personal life. Whether running for miles or walk-
ing from the car to the grocery store, simply focusing on your cadence and your breath and being mindful of where your thoughts take you can illuminate great things, he says. “Once you start really paying attention, you will be amazed at all that you’ve been missing.”
Delicious and Divine L. Shannon Jung, a professor at Saint Paul School of Theology, in Kansas City, Missouri, says he sees the burgeon- ing local food movement and surge in backyard gardening as welcome signs that people are rediscovering the heav- enly roots of Earthly bounty. “We are rediscovering food as a link between us and God,” he says, add- ing that many of his students have gone on to start congregational community gardening programs in churchyards. “When you watch a tiny green bud of spinach break through the surface of the soil, it really reminds you of our depen- dence upon things far beyond us.” Meanwhile, in Liverpool, England, members of the Somewhere Else “bread
church” meet twice a week to bake bread and talk about life as they wait for it to rise, the comforting smell filling the kitchen. Half of the bread, the staff of life, feeds the homeless. To McGehee, the mere act of eat- ing can be a reminder of what a divine wonder our own body is, as it stimulates every sense: the smell of an orange, the sound as we bite into it and its texture on our tongue. But when a meal is prepared lovingly and shared with a friend, it becomes even more sacred. “If you buy a sandwich at the drive-up, you are probably just fueling your body,” he comments. “But if you invite someone you care about to sit down with you for a sandwich, it can become a transcen- dent experience.”
Attend to Community Taylor, whose acclaimed book, Leav- ing Church, recounts her parting with parish ministry in 1996, finds that some of her greatest moments of spiritual connectedness now come while dig- ging her hands into the soil to find potatoes, bringing water to her chickens or sowing seeds. But she still believes that the traditional, walled church plays an important role, in that it brings us together physically. “My worry is that in a culture that
is individualistic and busy, if we aren’t careful, we might end up alone, with no
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