fitness

Part of the Same Radiance – a BBC Pause for Thought

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Here’s the text for the 16 June 2025 “Pause for Thought” I offered on the Breakfast Show with Scott Mills on BBC Radio 2. Listen here.

This spring I watched the London Marathon, which courses through my neighborhood and brings a thrill to the air. First the wheelchair racers like a shock of lightning, then the elite runners like gazelles, then 55,000 other folks, covering 26.2 miles at different paces, with different gaits, and it’s a beautiful sight.

My friend Ali ran this year, and I’d promised him a water bottle as he came down my street. I was following his progress on an app, but suddenly my phone died and would not be resurrected. And so instead of focusing on my screen as I had for the first hour, I looked up. I scanned the shimmering crowds for Ali’s face, and I got lost in a trance at all those beautiful human beings.

Some joyous, some grimacing, some stopping to rest, some just to pet my dog. Some running in memory of a loved-one, some running just because, some as a rite of passage to mark a life-event.

I ran my first marathon in Chicago in 2010 to celebrate one year sober. The course took us past a bar where I’d routinely gotten bladdered – and as we ran by, I felt so different from the years before. No longer hungover, isolated, or numbed-out – but instead grateful, connected, and so-much-more free.

Thomas Merton, a Christian monk, found himself one day unexpectedly in the swell of city-centre crowds. He wrote: “I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realisation I loved all these people: they were mine and I was theirs … such a relief and joy, I almost laughed out loud. It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race. If only everybody could realize this! But it can’t be explained. There’s no way of telling people they’re all walking around shining like the sun”.

I love that. I felt that enchantment, too, watching the race. Someone held up a sign that read: “Hey, random stranger – you’ve got this!”

We are random strangers, yes. And – as a Christian, I believe – somehow, deep-down, we’re all connected; we’re true kin; we’re part of the same radiance.

I forget that sometimes: I get stuck on myself. But then I look up, and all those gorgeous human beings. And suddenly there’s Ali, appearing out of nowhere, a huge smile on his face, a drink of water, a high-five, and off he goes. Off we all go, into the human race: every single one of us shining like the sun.

Spiritual six-pack? – a BBC Pause for Thought

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Here’s the text for the 18 November 2024 “Pause for Thought” I offered on the Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball on BBC Radio 2. Listen here.

I went to a physiotherapist recently. The week after my 49th-birthday. Somehow, on a 5K-run, I’d hurt my back. Hello, middle-age!

The physio said: You wanna keep running? You gotta build core strength. And the best way to do that, apparently, is lifting these ridiculous things called weights.

So, for the first time in my life, I have joined a gym. Y’all, it hasn’t been pretty. I didn’t know how to use the machines. My limbs buckled like noodles under the tiniest weights. And I had no idea about gym culture.

The very first exercise I tried was on a bench that, unknown to me, was marked as someone else’s bench, even though he was across the gym. He yelled out, Oy! I said: Sorry, first time.

A friend said I should have responded: Step-off, queen, I don’t know your routine. But I didn’t have that much confidence.

After a month of feeling clueless at the gym, I asked my physio for help. She introduced me to a personal trainer, Ricky, who asked what I wanted to achieve. I said: I’m not looking for bulging-biceps or a six-pack, I just wanna build stability, prevent injury, and keep running.

I am a control-freak. In recovery, yes – but I still like figuring things out by myself. My default stance is: leave me alone, I’ll sort it. At the gym, though, I couldn’t sort it. I had no idea what to do. So Ricky, in his kind-and-gentle way, is teaching me the basics. The right posture, how to hold the bar, how to safely add weight. I try his suggestions, I don’t get it perfect, but step-by-step I get a-little-better. My back feels good, I’m running again, and I have more body-confidence.

The good things in life require training. The Bible says: Physical training has some value, but spiritual training is useful for everything. It has promise for life now and – as Jesus says ­– for life to the fullest.

Whether we’re learning weights, or meditation and prayer – which part of my spiritual training ­– it’s awkward at first. Most of us need help. Welcome to being human.

I co-host the podcast Spill the Spirituality. Each episode I talk with diverse folks about what helps their spiritual training – from Bake-Off-winner Peter Sawkins to stand-up-comedian Helen Lederer to Radio2-presenter Owain Wyn Evans.

Whoever we are, we need each other. No six-packs promised, physical or spiritual. But step-by-step, life to the fullest.