Love to spare

By pure accident I ended up at the Portland Triathlon today. This is Ryan Levenick, about to come in 103rd of 306 competitors. By the time I shot this, he had swum 25 minutes, biked an hour and fifteen minutes, and run 54 minutes. He was passing his own family, who were cheering and blowing whistles, waving a sign that said "Go Fast, Daddy," and taking pictures of him, and as you can see--he had smiles for everybody. So did all the competitors. I've never seen such radiant smiles. Each contestant was smiling, tired but high on the rush of accomplishment.

There were spectators of all ages lined up with bells, clappers, and whistles, cheering and celebrating each person as they ran for the finish line. They cheered the same for complete strangers as they did for their friends and family members. I thought about all the love I've witnessed in the past two days--thousands of people cheering for those tiny birds last night, another thousand or more cheering for 306 would-be athletes today. I think we all love having something or someone to cheer for.

As Jack Kornfield says, "The world so much needs people who are free in this way, unafraid to love every being." I'm watching that love circulate, and I'm thinking about how much free-floating love there is in the world, and how terrific that is for us all.