Welcome Kanala!

Today the local Quizno’s sandwich shop generously offered us delicious subs for our lunch. This is not the first time we enjoyed their delicious sandwiches as we travel on the road. This was great beginning to our day.

Our first running stop of the day was a meeting with six very serious young track runners and their coach, Willie Turner. The young runners looked dressed to run a fast 800 meters which was the distance to East High School where hundreds of young adults were anxiously awaiting our arrival. After explaining what the words ‘slow jog’ meant, some of our runners were able to keep up with them as they carried the Torch to the high school.

Upon entering the high school auditorium, we were blasted by very enthusiastic cheering and an incredible band belting out some powerful tunes to welcome us. It was a fantastic exchange of inspiration and song as we shared with the kids our efforts to promote harmony as we run around the U.S.A.

They in turn offered us incredible energy and joy as they were very supportive and appreciative of all the runners and their presentations. Singing the World Harmony Run song with them was a very moving experience as they ‘rocked the house’ and really fueled our spirits for the long day ahead.

We are very grateful to all those who organized this event and all the administrators and teachers who helped to make this extraordinary event possible. We will never forget East High School.

A few miles down the road was the Evergreen Montessori School where about 40 very young children and their teachers greeted us as the runner carried the Torch to them.

The sweetness and innocence of children this age and their spontaneous reactions to something they may not fully understand yet showed us the natural harmony and joy that springs from the heart and has nothing to do with the sophisticated mind. We are grateful to Angela Feathers for arranging this event for us and hope to come back again to ‘learn’ from the children.

In the afternoon two of our three running teams were able to make it to Dyersburg, about 70 miles north of Memphis. We were met by Mayor Bill Revell, Physical Education teacher Mike McCullough and about 10 children and their parents. The honorable Mayor Revell ran the whole 2- mile distance while the children took turns running sections of the route to the Dyersburg Secondary School. There were about 400 children and staff waiting in the gym for us as we ran in with Mayor Revell and some of the children.

After his very touching introduction, Principal Newbill offered some kind words of encouragement as she told the children that harmony begins inside of them. This was our message as well, that ‘Harmony begins with me’ as we carry the torch to symbolize and share this wonderful message.

Our program there was very moving as we ended in our Theme song with some of the children joining us in song and even a spontaneous choreographed dance by a few of the young girls.

We are very grateful to Dyersburg and the school, but mostly to Mayor Revell who has joined us on our run through his beautiful city since 1997. We left Dyersburg after a deeply touching prayer and blessing from Mayor Revell. His sincerity and concern moved us to tears as he welcomed us back the next time we run around this country.

Our brochure cover girl.

He is almost completing his 30th year in office and I could understand why. His healthy and faithful attitude towards life and his promotion of health and harmony throughout the world is definitely reflected in his life and works for a better world. We hope to see Bill many more runs in the future.

We are very grateful to Mr. Patel for his offering of 4 rooms in the Country Hearth Inn of Union City. We truly enjoyed our stay.

As w were running there, I was stopped by two juniors in high school, Rachel and Lauren, who wanted to see what we were doing. Their enthusiasm and sincerity really touched our hearts as we were about to finish our run for the day.

Finally, in Troy, we met Clint and Teresa Tibbs as we were filling our car with gasoline at the end of our run. They told us that they were from the school that we will be visiting on Tuesday morning. They were so happy to have seen us beforehand and to share some of the information about our run to them.

Arpan and the World Harmony Run Team

---

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

< USA 7 May

USA 9 May >