Friday, January 19, 2018

Friday Non-Book-Report: Not Pushin


(This photo is a detail from my vision board from the quadrant about my fitness goals.  I chose the images because they are about yoga, and include tree pose, which is really really hard for me.  I think the photo works better than I could have known at the time I put it together for what I have to say today.)

I have a whole big pile of books that will feature in future Friday Book Reports.  If I didn’t care about finishing my notes before writing, I could write about one of them today, but I’m going to apply one of the ideas in that very same book:  not pushing.

Not pushing is hard for me.  If doing something is good, clearly doing it harder and faster and more must be better.  Maybe not.  Sometimes we need to be patient, like with a shy puppy.  We need to be present and let the puppy come to us when she is ready.  We can let the situation unfold gradually.

Or, to use a different analogy, some steps in construction take curing time.  Concrete isn’t ready right away and hurrying it causes problems.  (Does anyone remember the sign on 880?  “Stop Casting Porosity?”)  When what we are doing is worth doing well, sometimes it is worth doing slowly and with patience, respecting the materials we are working with (even, or especially, when those materials are our bodies!).


What are we doing today that could benefit from a little not-pushing?

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