Photo by Alaric Sim on Unsplash

After a rough day, I headed outside for a walk. Being outside, in the rain. Not a downpour. but sprinkling.  I remember sprinkling from when I was a girl. We used to run through the sprinklers for fun.  My grandfather would turn it on and we would run up to it to get wet. Who needs a pool?  I remember splashing in the gutters in the water runoff from other houses.  Barefoot playing in the water.  Folding in the outdoor world into my play.

We used to play. What happened?  We used to entertain ourselves with outdoor games.  I guess kids still do. The days of roaming the woods until Mom rang the dinner bell seem out of reach. 

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  Does growing up mean no more play? Adults are so serious.  Maybe that is why I love children so.  They can't help but play.  Life is a game to them.  Also true for us older children.  We just need to remember the game and play it.

Photo by Rick Hardabura on Unsplash

Every now and then we get the opportunity to re-imagine our lives.
A chance to change it utterly.
It starts with looking around to see truly what is.
After taking in the scenery of what is, we can start to see new paths.... new possibilities.

It's human to want everything to go back to the way it has always been.
But it will never be the same.  We can't go back in time.  We are here now.
What if we take a moment to look around and embrace where we currently stand?
From that embrace, we will be able to see many paths that we didn't see before.

We can then face the future with excitement at new opportunities instead of dread.
Uncomfortable?  Yes.  The future is unknown.  We don't know how it will end.
And we never did really know....
If the Maasai can do it, we can do it.

Photo by Jonathan Brinkhorst on Unsplash

Knowing the steps and doing the steps
Are two different things.

Sometimes it's easier to know what to do
than it is to actually do it.

What holds you back?

By KYPark - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23097237

Wuji is empty
Unformed
A circle containing nothing
It is stillness itself.

Taiji moves from stillness.
It creates yin and yang.
Male and female.
Sun and moon.
Balance in all things.

To move before you find stillness
Is folly.

Photo by Brian Erickson on Unsplash

To achieve top performance, you must have rest in all things.
When training for a marathon or ultra-marathon,
you never run more than 4-5 days per week.
The other 2 or 3 days are rest days.
Critical to your training are the days of rest.
Without them, your body cannot leverage the strength and endurance gains.
Your body needs time to catch up to the strides you are making.
To bring them into it's tissues and structures. 
To internalize them.  To make the strides part of it.

After my weekend long run, I would nap long that day. And the next.
Ryan Hall, the famous marathoner, kept a daily one-hour post-run nap in his training regime for the days he ran.  He considered it just as important as the run itself.

Consider how we are pushing ourselves in these world-turned-upside-down days...
Can you see that we may need more rest lately?

All things must be in balance.  That is The Way, The Tao.

HT Linda Westenberg

Photo by Madhu Shesharam on Unsplash

Rainy nights bring hope of life to parched ground.
Where is my comforting monsoon?  My rain every afternoon?
I wait, wait, wait.

Clouds appear, grow dark, dump life-giving water in the distance.
But not here.

I feel a warning clang in my heart.  Is it too late?

It rained here last night finally...

Photo by Science in HD on Unsplash

Lately I've been looking for a teacher.
Someone to teach me how to do something I am not very good at or have never done.

How do we find good teachers? 

Not all teachers will be right for us. We need one who matches our style, our personality. 
Who resonates with us in a way that they can inspire us to go beyond. 
To become curious enough that we start doing the work. Investigating for ourselves.
Once we have crossed the curiosity threshold, we are golden.  We are in.  Hooked.

We start to become our own teachers.
We realize that we can research our field, method, topic on our own.
And surpass our teacher....

Which is what he wanted all along...

HT Daisaku, Seth, Vince, Jarrod, Tim

Humans were meant to be together.
We are social animals. Fear of being left out is a genetic fear.
Or fear of being abandoned. 
Being left alone... to die is the deep-seated implication.

Living alone as I do, I choose to be kind to myself when these feelings arise.
I reach out to a friend or family member or even a neighbor.
To remind myself that I am not really alone if I can step out my door.

The flip side of living alone is enjoying the solitude of my own thoughts.
I have a quote by Sister Wendy that I keep by my bed.
"Loneliness is needy,
It wants.
Solitude is fulfillment,
It has."

Reminding myself that I made a choice and seeing all the benefits derived from that choice helps me.
And embracing the little child within who fears or is sad about it.

If you have time, I highly recommend watching Sister Wendy.  She devoted her life to studying art.  Here is one of her episodes.

And about others... please consider passing on my blog to someone who may find it helpful.

Photo by Jo Woods on Unsplash

Sweaty palms
Peering at water so far below
Fear stops my breath.

All nerves tingle with warnings of danger.
Do I dare?
With a huge breath, I L E A P…

Certain of death, I plunge
DOWN
DOWN
DOWN

Greeted by a cold blanket of stillness
My momentum slows
Stops

I bobb up to the surface
Shouts of victory
Fill the air