All I Know of Heaven

It’s cross country season.

Students at middle schools, high schools, and colleges all around the country are lacing up their sneakers and quietly running past the roaring crowds in football stadiums to hit the trails that crisscross their campuses and towns. They run in the southern heat and the northern winds, in the rain and on school holidays. Cheered on by one another, they tackle steep hills and navigate through muddy bottoms, pulling strength from heart as well as muscle. They are studies in discipline and grit, and testimonies to the beauty and potential of the human form.

My daughter, Segi, is one of them. With this short poem on her sport, she reminded me of the intimate connection between body and soul, and of the fact that if we pay close enough attention, we can find the divine right here at our feet.

All I Know of Heaven

by Segilola Smith-Paríolá

Heartbeat pounding a dance on the earth
Legs strong to catch me if I stumble
With wings to fly me over the ground
Like water over stone.
As long as I am earthbound
This is all I'll know of heaven.