When life gives you rain, choose reflections.
It’s another week wet, so let’s find the positives and fill our runs with awe.
We’ve already run near water as a symbol of life and guidance. Reflections is its spiritual sister. Enticing your eye into the image to mind-bending or romantic effect.
Reflections in water can also deepen our relationship with our surroundings. Forcing new perspectives. Framing landmarks. Magnifying life. Adding layers. Providing moments of self-reflection. Nature’s filter is a beautiful one.
How to run this theme: Reflections
Any shiny surface or body of still water can bend our vision and force a double take.
It could be:
- mirror images in still puddles
- catching your reflection in convex mirror
- the shallows left in low tide
- the mystical features of a switched-off fountain
- a shop window at night
- the sparkle and shimmer of light
- moonlight or sunlight on a river
- the world from your running glasses’ lens
…or the mindful act of having a two-way conversation with your thoughts and emotions.
Run with an open mind and eyes and see what’s staring back at you. Happy location scouting!
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Joyful reflections in water I’ve run upon
Let’s start with a recent run at Castle Howard.
Algae discoloring the water of circular reservoir basin atop Ray Wood, placing an eerie filter over Tony Cragg’s sculpture Over the Earth. The mirror image of the sculpture accentuates its aero-dynamical form with the top resembling clouds as they pass over the earth.
The image to its left is from a run in Bilbao. A distorted version of the city reflected in the windows of the Euskalduna Palace Conference and Performing Arts Centre. The building itself is fascinating, built in corten steel as a nod to the last vessel built in the old Euskalduna shipyard. In the foreground is Salvador Dalí’s TERPSÍCORE – a melting goddess of dance and choir in Greek mythology that appears to dance gracefully along the fountain’s surface.
Closer to home, I’m fond of finding new angles in York’s historic buildings. The city is prone to flooding but even the smallest puddle can reveal delightful reflections in water. Here’s the flagship Bettys in York:
Reflections in water in golden hour
Another opportune time for reflection is liminal ‘golden hour’ of sunrise and sunset.
Watching the sun slowly slip behind the horizon while running works wonders if you’re trying to slow down, relax, and bask in the beauty of nature. The departing sun leaving behind an inspiring palette against bodies of water.
Good for the soul, working out to a serene backdrop of nature’s choice is totally uplifting.
Like reflections, no two sunsets or sunrises are the same.
Their ephemeral unpredictability can turn otherwise routine runs into treasure hunts.
And when their over, the moon reflecting in water offers up its own spectacle.
→ Other ‘Running to Wonder‘ themes
