“The rest of the short walk was silent. It was that loud sortof silence where the absence is painful, when there’s so much tosay, but nothing is said.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“But she just couldn’t stop checking her phone; she wantedto stop, tried to stop, but the pull would not let her go. It wasa strange experience for her to be doing the obsessive phone-checkingthing. Vanessa talked about it, and she had heard storiesabout it from other friends. One date with a guy and suddenlythe phone becomes like an appendage endowed with some superpower to predict your future.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“I learned to run toward the pain, not away from it. There is nothing like that feeling: pushing, your legs like two powerhouses, your cadence a seemingly effortless rhythm in sync with your mind, every emotional pain you ever experienced washed away by your power to endure. A personal thought I often have after a great run: The pain of running relieves the pain of living.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“They continued to run together for the next thirty minutes. Not a word between them, only the unspoken pulse of the run. Jacob believed runners shared an implicit doctrine: push through the pain to hit a point where it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“I may never fly—in the bird sort of way. But I do have wings.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Sometimes the truth isn’t obvious; sometimes it exists in the silence, in the emptiness between the spaces, but we’re too afraid to hear it.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“The Existentially Preoccupied Long Distance RunnerSometimes I like to run so hard and for so longwith each mile I can feel the pain of my own awareness,my own heightened consciousness of what ails me,the ills of the world,the limitations of our existence,the losses we must endure,the superficial interactions.Sometimes I like to run so hard and for so longthat I can feel all of these feelings seep out of the pours of my own skin,the sweat cleansing my very being,my awareness of beauty heightened,the experience of joy possible,each mile, each minute, ridding me of these feelings,washing away the illusions,showing me the truth.Sometimes I like to run so hard and for so long…until finally I feel free…until finally I AM free…”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“She would not have another man push her aside like some appetizer, there to wet his whistle only to be left once the main dish arrived.No more. She pushed her thumb into his throat a little harder.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“She was the kind of woman a person could die over or kill over.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Love makes people do crazy things. And not feeling loved can bring people to the edge of madness.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“The sun glowed behind the monotonous, gray January sky, a tease of light through the heavy hazy. Noah gazed out the window. He hated when the sun shined against the overcast sky creating a white, blinding glare while the ball of yellow remained hidden, a tantalizing possibility without a promise. Maybe it would poke through; maybe it wouldn’t. That type of sun was a capricious as a woman.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Looking at that pain in her eyes, he felt a closeness with her that he had never experienced before. Like they shared something powerful and unspoken, something so deep and devastating, it bonded them together. He knew then, that if she didn’t forgive him, he would never survive.He was nothing without her.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Sometimes, we miss the truth when it’s right in front of us, she thought. Sometimes the closer we are, the harder it is to see.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Sweat dripped down his chest. She never thought she could envy a piece of fabric, until she saw the T-shirt kissing his skin the way she wanted to.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“I step outside, easy at first… there is noise; I don’t hear it. There are people; I don’t see them… I see the water; I am alongside it. There is a big hill; I conquer it. A mile of grass; I fly across it. With each step I am stronger, and then faster. My body engages; I am really flying; I am one with the road, but I no longer feel it. With every step forward I am faster and freer. Nothing can touch me; no one can find me. What I find is the truth. I find myself… I am a runner.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“I used to think that life was only about progress, getting to a destination, the final outcome. But this isn’t quite right. Life is more of a process, and as much as goals are important, the in-the-moment experiences along the way are really where authentic living takes place. Running has taught me this. In fact, running has been my greatest teacher of life.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Time is a daunting thing; it’s inescapable. Some moments pass unobserved and others stay with us, remaining frozen, lasting a lifetime…”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Life can be difficult at times and many questions have no answers. The determination it takes to go on and the resiliency required of the human spirit to find joy is an integral part of existing as human. Running is symbolic of this struggle. The joy and satisfaction come from meeting the challenge head on, and realizing that just when you think you cannot go on anymore, if you pull deep from within yourself,you will find strength beyond anything imaginable.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“We can reach untainted experiential freedom, by living in the moment as it is—without contemplation. Here we find the possibility of freedom—of just being—living as our authentic self. We are our true nature. We are one and whole.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Heartbreak is awful, but truth be told, if you have never had your heart broken, then you aren’t fully living. I want you to ask yourself this question because I want you to bask in the fullness of life. And in order to feel life – to experience life – you need to take risks. When you open your heart, you risk having it broken; or stated more accurately it will be broken. But do it anyway; open yourself up. If you don’t, you will never know what it means to live, to love and to be with others.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“The Silence of the Final GoodbyeI knew you best from the silences,The time and space in between,The moment before our lips touched,The way your arms went up in the air before you laughed,The smile that we shared before we talked,The redness on your face before your tears,The sensation of your arms around me after you released the embrace.The look you gave me before you walked away,Nothing had ever been so painful,No words could say what your eyes told me,When I wake in the morning without you,It’s the first thing I hear…The silence of the final goodbye.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“We live and learn, and in betweenwe do the best we can.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“She wasn’t broken.She was made up of a thousand tiny little cracks.She was always trying to keep herself glued together.But it was hard, she felt too much.No matter what she did, her emotions seeped through,sometimes in drips, other times in floods,She felt everything,the heaviness of the clouds right before rain,the rush of the subway cars as they left the station,the feeling of goodbye as she watched someone walk away,wondering if it was the last time she would see them,the feeling of a kiss lingering on her cheek for hours.She felt the loneliness of the sun as it hung in the sky,shedding light on the day,without companion.And she longed to give as much as the sun.If she could brighten someone’s day,bestow warmth were there was cold,make someone smile, give someone hope,then for a minute, an hour, maybe even a day,the cracks would fill with loveand the pain would become only a voice,reminding her that her pain was important.She knew how fragile life was, how hard,and how precious.She wanted to feel it all.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“I highly recommend running through grassy trails in the rain. There is a haven of serenity out in nature, the sound of raindrops and the scent of flowers, the feeling of the water along my skin. Even in the middle of a busy city and an insane world, there is beauty everywhere. All we have to do is pause long enough to notice.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Looking back, retrospectively on the events of that evening, I can see the irony — the shrink whose cat ate his own tail. At the time of the incident, however, humor was not in my emotional repertoire; it was the furthest thing from my mind.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“This may sound like a bunch of psychobabble, but the truth is that we are all filled with contradictions; personality is fluid not black and white. And, well…we are all both strongand weak. That’s what it means to be human. We all have flaws, weaknesses. The real strength is when we can admit these to ourselves and become able to show them to others.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“This may sound like a bunch of psychobabble, but the truth is that we are all filled with contradictions; personality is fluid not black and white. And, well…we are all both strongand weak. That’s what it means to be human. We all have flaws,weaknesses. The real strength is when we can admit these to ourselves and become able to show them to others.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“We must love those close to us, all the time, every day. Moments only happen once. Make them matter.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Life is ephemeral; each moment passes quickly, a blur of color on a fast moving subway car. There and gone and all we are left with is the imprint of what once was.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn
“Sometimes the closer you are to the truth, the harder it is to see.”
— Jacqueline Simon Gunn