By: Mark Collinson
It was almost 12 months ago that I embarked on an amazing 6 month journey with the European leg of the World Harmony Run that was to take me through 30 countries and leave me with such wonderful memories that they will stay with me forever. As I reflect on what only can be said as the time of my life I cannot help but smile and feel a loving sense of joy and happiness. My words cannot truly convey fully my experiences as what I write seems inadequate the myriad of images swimming in my mind and how many people touched my heart.
As I read the current World Harmony Run reports I know what the guys are experiencing, and how much fun they are having, but at the same time how much work each individual has to contribute to the whole team to make the Run function day to day. People often comment that the running must be the hardest part – how to keep running up to 20-30 km a day, every day. But I feel that the running generally is the easiest part. What people don’t see are the stamina, discipline and resilience that runners need to keep going on the road under generally demanding and challenging conditions. There is sleeping in a different place every night, having no personal space, and there is always something that needs to be done – whether cleaning the vehicles, washing your kit, writing the daily report for the website, sorting out the food provisions, and after all these evening chores, to fit in some much needed rest. But for me, all this is what makes the experience so special. It’s good to have routines and each new runner that joins generally adapts to a World Harmony Run body clock – long, exhausting, but very happy days, with blissful sleep at the end of each day.
Team dynamics is rather an interesting part of the Run. The common thread that links us altogether is our aspiration for oneness and harmony and how each runner can help create this in the whole family. It is this sense of oneness that is created within the Team. It is not always harmony within the Team, but you find that you learn as much about oneself as about other people.
The World Harmony Run is in a constant state of flux and has an energy and momentum all of its own. The World Harmony Run runners do not make the World Harmony Run, but all those people that we meet and those that hold the torch and all those children that so joyfully run with us – they make the World Harmony Run what it is. All their wishes for a more harmonious world that they place into the flame are carried on to the next village, town, city, country and the whole of Europe and the World. As a member of the International team I felt such gratitude to be given this opportunity to meet so many people. For a fleeting moment the World Harmony Run torch touches peoples’ lives, but their heartfelt goodness, their smiles of young and old and express sincerity for harmony, joy and oneness remains for eternity.
If you can create harmony
In your own life,
This harmony will enter
Into the vast world
Article by: Mark Collinson.
Bristol
Photo of Closing Ceremony, World Harmony Run at British Museum London 2006 .