It is April 16, 2020, the day we were supposed to begin the North American Peace Run. I’m in the driveway of Aspiration Ground, the place where we spent countless hours with Peace Run founder Sri Chinmoy. It is a place where we would sit in silence, a place where we would do sports, play games, sign songs, share stories, laugh and grow.

Traditionally our North American team would assemble here in the early morning and observe a collective period of silence before embarking on one of life’s truly beautiful adventures, a 10,000 mile, 4 month journey taking us across the nation as well as into Mexico and Canada before returning to New York in August.

Today I’ll end up running two and a half miles in my neighborhood.

I’m not sad, there doesn’t seem to be any point, in fact to be sad strikes me as being a little indulgent. Given the challenges some people are facing.

I am poignant, reflective and grateful. Enjoying the memories of Peace Run beginnings of years passed. In fact later today I’ll even go so far as to sit in our team motorhome - just because I like the atmosphere. But it is not quite the same as driving cross country. It is parked in a friend’s driveway about 300 yards from my house.

One memory which keeps returning to me, not just today but many times, is of an early morning in late spring on a small country road in southern Illinois. The crew I was with was first out and this day was picture perfect. The quiet road ran along the foot of a wooded escarpment on the left with a broad freshly mown verge of grass coming up to the road while on the other side was green young commercial crop of some sort. It was ever so slightly misty and there were beams of sunlight separated by tree branches touching the rich green of the dewy grass. It was completely quiet and still cool. I can nearly touch this memory and it refresh’s me as I bask in it.

Another recollection I have is the thrill I would feel as we crossed the Goethals Bridge from Staten Island into New Jersey. This would mark the beginning of our cross country journey on foot. To know that we would be running all the way to the west coast and back was incredibly thrilling. Each step was taking us further away. This was such an unparalleled sense of adventure made even richer by the knowledge that there were countless enriching, satisfying and nourishing experiences awaiting to unfold along our path. Meetings with peace lovers across a nation - could anything be better?

Salil - Australia