30,000 feet

About 30,000 feet to think and hope and pray and dream. I look at the clouds and imagine their silver linings or focus on the blue sky. I check how my heart's responding or notice the way my leg kicks out before my foot lands. I also meditate---for the health of my friends and family, small and big, and for peace and balance for the whole earth. If my lungs or muscles hurt, burn, or ache, I tell myself that many people bear deeper pains, and so I pray for them, too. It might just be 5 or 6 miles, but all the steps add up and twenty or thirty or fifty thousand prayers carries us pretty far.