The point was living with grace, decency, and attention to the world, and breaking free of the artificial constructs in your own life.

As powerful as our legs are, as magnificent as our lungs and arms and muscles are, nothing matters more than the mind.

For me, it's about optimizing health. It's about lifestyle and longevity. Then you think about what vegetarian diets can do for the mass population, in terms of lower consumption of resources. When you look at the numbers, it's pretty staggering.

We move forward, but we must stay in the present.

But the longer and further I ran, the more I realized that what I was often chasing was a state of mind- a place where worries that seemed monumental melted away, where the beauty and timelessness of the universe, of the present moment, came into sharp focus.

You can hurt more than you ever thought possible, then continue until you discover that hurting isn't that big a deal.

Fear is what makes you come alive, the lure of the unknown - can I do this? - thats where the growth comes from, the pain. I dont remember the running effortlessly; I remember the hard times; adversity breathes transformation.