Loosening up the spine, 27 min
A slow, yummy lesson with gentle reaching of the arms and rolling of the pelvis. It clarifies rotation and counter-rotation, key movements in walking and running. Plus, it’s soothing, like you’re rocking yourself.
It’s a classic lesson taught at the beginning of nearly every training. It can be a bit of a brain scramble, but when it’s all done I feel much smoother and elegant. When I go walk the dog, my arms and legs swing easier.
Test it out. Notice if you take a deep breath!
Thought for March 21st: Uncertainty and Gratitude
Note: This was written on Thursday, March 19th.
When facts change, update your behavior.
With new data, reevaluate and change direction.
I know this from years of training and I’m pretty good at it, but not perfect.
I'm working hard to balance micro effects—me staying at home—with macro effects—the impact on lifestyle and the economy. Every day I fluctuate between fine and not-fine, uplifted and contracted.
I feel helpless sitting at home, so I signed up for my state's volunteer roster and arranged to donate blood, which is in short supply. At least I feel like I’m doing something because the irony is that staying home IS doing something.
It’s very frustrating.
Gratitude and questions
Today I read an article by Alain de Botton on Camus's book, The Plague, from 1947. Camus researched all plagues throughout history and surmised that “the only way to fight the plague is with decency.”
De Botton comments, “This is what Camus meant when he talked about the 'absurdity' of life. Recognizing this absurdity should lead us not to despair but to a tragicomic redemption, a softening of the heart, a turning away from judgment and moralizing to joy and gratitude.”
Toward that end, on my kitchen whiteboard I write notes about what I'm grateful for (food, shelter, resources, friends, mad cooking skills).
I make a list of friends to contact every day, books to read, and inspiring thoughts. It helps.
(Right now, the whiteboard says: “Make better choices: Food, health, connection, creativity, resources.” The quote: “Make the unthinkable possible.” And a list of my ten best friends with check marks for contacts.)
Living through hard times
Several years ago, I lived through a profound medical trauma with someone who nearly died. I provided physical, logistical, and emotional support, which forced me to confront a number of ethical, legal, financial, and spiritual questions that most people avoid until much later in life.
These kinds of life-and-death questions are are tangled, tedious, and heart-wrenching. Yet here is society at large, facing these deeply tangled questions every day.
I cannot help but think that this reflection will yield a more thoughtful, connected worldview. Out of challenge comes strength, and from deep soul-searching, growth.
The other hard time was when I lived across from the financial district in Brooklyn, NY, during 9/11. To get takeout Chinese on the corner we waded through ankle-deep paper that had floated down from the towers. The internet was down. Cell service was down. TV news was down because the signal came from the top of the Trade Center.
There were tanks in Soho and men with guns outside the cafes. It was scary, but people bonded together and cared for each other, with decency.
What certainty?
I think the point of hard times is to remind us that safety is an illusion. We skate on a deceptively solid surface with uncertainty lurking below like an iceberg that’s ninety percent underwater.
All we can can do is choose how we will respond to uncertainty in this moment: be crippled by it, ignore it, defy it, or meet it.
Like the thought experiment of Schrödinger's cat, we don't know how it will play out. I only know I can, on a good day, choose my response, plan for contingencies, get on the floor, and do a lesson.