Happy Saturday friends!
Isn’t it funny how new weeks, new months, new years can set you on a path to change? There is something about feeling like you are starting fresh that makes change seem more doable somehow. One of the things I’ve been in the process of changing in my life is creating art or writing in the morning before I receive input from the world. That means slowly, slowly curtailing a years long habit of picking up my phone and checking email or news or texts, or even worse for me-social-when I wake up.
This morning at the end of my news/email/text check, I realized I had done it again! Dammit! And it reminded me of one of my favorite lessons:
THE HEAD DINK
A little background:
In the late 1990s during my late 20s, I was a whitewater kayaker. I learned to roll in a pool before I ever went out in a whitewater kayak. Once I was out on whitewater I continued practicing rolling since swimming in heavy whitewater is dangerous—so many ways to get bashed by or stuck in, rocks.
Once I had a bombproof roll, and only swam on the rare occasions when rolling was impossible, my mentor taught me something new called a “head dink.”
A little more background:
In a C to C kayak roll (your body makes a super tight sideways C shape in one direction and then you use the paddle and the unwinding power of your body to make the C shape in the opposite direction which rolls you out of the water. You can see that here!
The last thing out of the water is your head, which stays down, toward the water until you’re upright.
So, the head dink! It turned out that if you found yourself flipping upside down in a squirrely rapid, if you just threw your head sideways, down toward the water, it would automatically create that last C position with your body and you’d pop up out of the fall without ever flipping over in the first place. Craziness.
The issue is that throwing your head toward the turbulent water that you’re headed toward is the most counter-intuitive thing in the world!
I eventually got so used to doing it that I hardly ever rolled at all. Here I am, 55 years old and the muscle memory (not sure my actual muscles would be strong enough though lol) in my body could still easily do it. Watching that video of the roll made my muscles twitch LOL
But what I learned in the head dink was something that stayed with me the rest of my life:
1. I’d be paddling down the river, having just rolled up, and think, “Oh damn. I should have tried that head dink.” That went on for some time. I had practiced it in flat water and at the pool but real life applications just took longer.
2. I’d be coming up from a roll and think, “Dammit! I should have head dinked!” That also went on for some time.
3. I’d get caught off balance and start to roll and as I was going over think, “Ugh! Should have head dinked!”
4. A funky eddy line would catch me and I’d try to head dink but, too late and I’d roll.
5. And then finally, finally! I would try the head dink first!
Through the years I’ve found another version of this teaching that I love, a little book called There’s a Hole in my Sidewalk. Fabulous. Buy it. Keep it where you can see it.
What was I talking about…oh yes, creative output before input before I start my day! It’s important to recognize our learning patterns—it keeps us from pounding ourselves into the dirt when we don’t get something right, right away. We are living beings who are always learning, and learning takes time. It’s okay to give ourselves a break and some compassion, just like we would do for a friend that we saw learning something new.
ILLUSTRATING MY LIFE:
SMOKY HOUSE UPDATE:
This week we had a holiday and then snowy/icy weather which kept the contents mitigation company from coming out until Friday. When they came out though, they got right to work, taking down all the artwork on the walls, cleaning it, wrapping it, packing it into boxes. Whew, That took most of the day. Two big storage containers arrived onsite and are now sitting in our front yard so as they clean, they can start packing the boxes into them. This process of getting everything cleaned and out of the house will take 8-10 weeks. Then the structure mitigation will begin. What a process.
PRAYERS NEEDED:
My Aunt Katy didn’t get the news we were hoping for and will return to chemo every two weeks for six months. We are all heartbroken.
Dad’s wife Delores has a brother with bone cancer that could use prayers as well.
HAPPY:
This little girl is bringing us all joy, even though she lives all the way in Pittsburgh! Michael and Nic have named her Penelope:
They are both smitten! I’m loving hearing about her Sonic the Hedgehog mode where she just races around the house at top speed before collapsing into a heap to sleep. I miss puppies :-)
THE MEMES:
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