I like to go back and reread people’s old blog posts sometimes. Why? It’s always worth revisiting them with fresh eyes.
My friend Lewis at Barefootman wrote a few weeks ago about the flux of who we are. It’s a subject that has been in my thoughts a lot of late, I can’t agree strongly enough with his post, all we are is constant flux. We are the process, and yes, we should accept the awkwardness as well as the beauty. In fact, I’ll take it a step further, and say that we must also learn to see the beauty in the awkwardness.
Allow me to elaborate my thinking. When I started Tajiquan training, my movements were awkward, after my long absence, they are awkward again. Nobody wants to be awkward, we all want to move and live with beauty and grace, but like a butterfly from a caterpillar that grace is born from awkwardness. I think the first step to seeing it is to accept ourselves as we are, to stop grasping after the beauty, that way lies metta (suffering).
But we should know that both beauty and awkwardness are parts of the same whole, two sides of the same coin. I said above that beauty (or grace) is born of awkwardness, I also believe that awkwardness can be born of beauty. Think about our beautiful celebrities…. Unable to move without being photographed or stalked, unable to do anything without it winding up in gossip columns, unable to move with security and minders, under constant pressure to perform. Beautiful, but in a very real way, also very awkward. I think that’s an interesting line of thought….
Lewis says:
Ooo, that IS an interesting line of thought - that’s wonderful example of duality, and of yin and yang, how very yin becomes yang and vice versa.
12 June 2007, 9:35 pmAlys says:
in my field we preach stability, then mobility and then skill. From the initial awkwardness and stumbling to , in some cases, running or at least walking. Too often, people want to go straight to “skill” and skip the beginning and middle but I teach them the beauty in any and all movement, no matter how small and to rejoice in themselves and their accomplishments. I am really liking the idea of beauty and awkwardness being two sides of the same coin. Well said, and thank you.
5 July 2007, 10:47 pm