To Move is to Live, To Live is to Move

This particular March morning happened to be one of those fabulous bluebird weekend mornings that affirms, in no uncertain terms, why we locals get giddy about our good fortune of living in Kimberley.  Hefting my cross-country skis on my shoulder, I decided to catch some early tracks and spectacular views of the Rockies at our local nordic centre (http://www.kimberleynordic.org).

Finding an easy rhythm on the well-groomed trails, it was easy to let my mind wander a web of trails through its own unique landscape.  Recovering as I am from some major surgery in January, matters of health and wellness, mind-body connection and attunement are often front of mind these days, and this morning was no exception.

In the time leading up to diagnosis of cancer and subsequent surgery to remove it, my acupuncturist had often observed in me conditions known in Traditional Chinese Medicine as "stagnant liver", "stagnant blood" and "spleen qi deficiency".  It is interesting how sometimes we don't really understand what we have had in terms of "dis-eases" and imbalances until we have gotten past them and are able to look back with the greater clarity and consciousness gained through successful navigation of the "healing crisis."

As I was rounding a gentle uphill bend in the trails,  full of joy and gratitude for being able to ski with such ease again, I reflected back on my life prior to the diagnosis and realized that it had been, in fact, "stuck" and "stagnant" in many ways - perhaps most importantly with respect to my own self concepts, sense of limitations, and ideas of what I am here to create.  Life was comfortable, but just barely.  Imagination was wanting.  Vision was near-sighted at best - indeed, I was loathe to examine the long term implications of my core beliefs, values and trajectory of the day.  My metaphorical "fire" was small in a stingy sort of way, and the woodpile was being closely rationed just in case there was to be a shortage.

Yikes, I say, as I look back on this last chapter with the realization that I had unconsciously allowed myself to fall into a rather dark chasm of scarcity and lack of self-belief.  Definitely not going back there again!

It was then, as I was reflecting on the past months and thoroughly enjoying the full-body movement and aesthetic of cross-country skiing in these beautiful mountains, that the words dropped into my head "to move is to live, and to live is to move."  I now know that there is no place for stagnation of any kind in my life anymore.  We are indeed here to live, to move, to learn, to create, to explore, to discover, to sense, to find what gives us knowledge and pleasure.....all the while knowing that this is a moving target as we grow, change and evolve....which means getting out of one's comfort zone fairly regularly.

So the real challenge, it would seem, is to keep up with and meet the evolutionary demand that the "higher self" is continually making upon one - gently beckoning us to discover just how big and expansive we really are (yet capable of wielding an attention-grabbing 2 x 4 if we insist on burying our head in the sand).  This is where both grace and courage would seem to be essential qualities.  Ho!