Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash
Written one month ago…
unpolished thoughts 7/19/2019
There are many pathways to discovery, sometimes by throwing caution to the winds, other times by taking the utmost care. Both methods might lead to transformation, but not the same one.
The daredevil might not ever learn the subtle sensitivity of the Zen master, nor will the master ever do the triple-twisting backflip.
Different moments call for different attitudes. Different attitudes open different avenues.
But it can be possible to have some measure of both. Not a slow motion triple-twisting back flip, taking note of the difference in tone between the inhale and exhale while sailing through the air, but one at a time, in one moment and the other, a life that knows more than one end of the spectrum.
Neither extreme is inherently necessary to increase the range of where you feel aliveness.
Think of a day when your heart was bursting at the seams, when even the sunlight glinting off parked car windows on the street came to you at the perfect angle as you walked by, colored just right to tickle the inside of your eyeballs. A day when children shouting, dogs barking, the breeze, and the rush of traffic all seamlessly blended into your grateful ears, swirling together with brand new ideas sprouting in your head.
Why not live every day that way?
Of course, it can’t happen by way of choice, but it can be invited by more exploration of the realms of the daredevil and the Zen master.
What about the art of lovemaking, for example?
Where do you place the kisses on your lover’s skin to create not only pleasure, but also gentle surprise? When do you surrender to receive rather than taking more and more and more? Why is there only one dance when there could be so many other dances?
Another day you may be invited to make music.
Do you merely clap your hands and sing? What is the music of your elbows and knees? What songs emerges from your right armpit and your left hip?
Why do you play your instrument alone? If you invited two more friends, what sounds might emerge through the collaboration of six sensing hands?
When you pause for quiet, how quiet can you become? Can you hear your heartbeat as well as the distant promise of a rainstorm approaching? Can you feel the air moving in the gaps between your fingers?
Can you detect the moment that your idea becomes an intention, the moment when your intention becomes an action?
Your lover will thank you if you allow yourself to live this way, and so will the musicians in your ensemble. Children will more readily recognize you as their kin. Elders will treat you less like children.
What does it mean to feel the breath of your skin and notice immediately whenever anxiety makes your skin hold its breath?
How does the air speak to your flesh when you welcome its crossing of your boundaries, from outside to inside, from inside to outside?
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