During this year’s spring break, on one of Michigan’s unicorn-quality warm weather March days, a good friend of mine finally convinced me to start running. I’ve been going to the gym consistently for the last few years — don’t ask why I still can’t bench 225lbs — but I’ve always been incredibly averse to any form of cardio.

Running is hard! I’ve never liked it, even as a kid. That’s the age where you’re supposed to like running! It’s difficult for me to start new habits like this, especially if it’s something that I’m predisposed to not liking. Life is short, however, and we ended up running through campus for a couple of miles.

My pace was as slow as it took for me to keep going without taking a break, almost a brisk walk more than a discernible jog. That didn’t stop me from staring straight into the face of my lack of stamina. Shortly into the run, I began breathing too hard to speak.

My friend and I were silently persevering and the only consistent sounds other than our consecutive, pulsed inhales and exhales were from nature: wind through trees, sneakers crunching sidewalk gravel and bird cries. We got through it. I felt surprisingly great afterwards. Since that time, I’ve been trying to run every day, no matter how inextricably sine-wave-like Michigan’s recent weather patterns have been. 

The Marginalia series is a collection of daily piano improvisations from renowned Japanese film composer Takagi Masakatsu. On his Bandcamp, he explains:

“These daily piano recordings were made in my private studio surrounded by the mountains in Hyogo, Japan. I opened all the windows to welcome the sounds of nature and played the piano without any sort of preparation: no overdubbing, no writing, no editing, no fixing… just as it is. What you are listening to now are raw, improvised piano recordings where the sounds of nature and the musical notes are recorded at the same time, in harmony without any discrimination. I love to think that nature might also listen to my piano.”

The song itself reminds me of that introductory run: a slow, steady and sweet spring experience accompanied by the sounds of nature. No preparation, no knowledge on how to stretch or warm up — just running as it is.