Traditional Japanese tattoo artist Horibun I at work in Tokyo, circa 1970s.

“But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them. I had to do the work first, not knowing.”

“Sensitive people are the most genuine and honest people you will ever meet. There is nothing they won’t tell you about themselves if they trust your kindness. However, the moment you betray them, reject them or devalue them, they become the worse type of person. Unfortunately, they end up hurting themselves in the long run. They don’t want to hurt other people. It is against their very nature. They want to make amends and undo the wrong they did. Their life is a wave of highs and lows. They live with guilt and constant pain over unresolved situations and misunderstandings. They are tortured souls that are not able to live with hatred or being hated. This type of person needs the most love anyone can give them because their soul has been constantly bruised by others. However, despite the tragedy of what they have to go through in life, they remain the most compassionate people worth knowing, and the ones that often become activists for the broken hearted, forgotten and the misunderstood. They are angels with broken wings that only fly when loved.”

“I think I’m always trying to find the balance between softness and strength because both of those exist within me,”

“When we train ourselves to finish strong in one area of our lives, like running, we learn to finish strong across the board. We see things through. We meet our deadlines and press on toward our goals. We stay present even when things are hard and we’re tired and out of patience. We pony up and turn in the paper, even when it’s tempting to give up. We learn to forsake immediate gratification in favor of the long view. We do this, because even though it might feel good to stop, it will feel awesome to finish. We learn how to access our backup tank and remember to keep it full. Once we learn the value of finishing strong, we don’t do things almost. We don’t give up. Finishing strong is ultimately about commitment—commitment to ourselves, to our partners, to our dreams, and to our goals. Love for a person or a passion is sometimes more work than feeling. It’s a commitment to hang in there when we are running on fumes. I know that when I finish strong, I’m cultivating and honoring the love and commitments in my life. As a runner, I apply that hard-earned wisdom to everything I do.”