balance

More developed on Wednesday, but that last post needed to end as it did, especially as these developments were more social and entirely non-academic.
First, I offer this picture:

Yup, those are my feet on a tightrope, balancing about 2ft off the ground. Tres, one of the guys here brought a — um, tripline? I’ve lost the word — but a rope-ish line that he drew between two giant trees in the woods. I overheard Sophie talking about practicing on this line the previous afternoon, and slowly moved my way into the conversation. I’ve been attempting to be a bit more social and actually get to know the people here. If you know me well, you know that genuinely doing this takes me some time. I may look like Mom, but I continue to carry Dad’s constitution. In other words, I’ll smile and nod and be polite and academic and such, but making that next move to actually know someone usually takes strong effort and movement outside of my comfort zone. Occasionally it happens that I’m naturally really drawn to someone, but that is rare and quite special, and hasn’t really happened here yet.

Anyhow, I weaseled my way into Sophie’s conversation and was invited to join the tightroping after lunch. So, I went. She and Tres were really good at this, and I watched for awhile. Then they asked if I wanted a turn. Now, again, you may know that I’m not known for my, hm, grace in physical movement. If there’s a hair on the rug, I’ll trip over it. Hell, I don’t even need the hair — I do that tripping-fake-running thing on pavement all the time. Almost every significant injury I’ve had has come from ridiculous circumstances, like breaking a finger by rolling a ball on the ground, or taking my dog outside. So, I was not optimistic. And I hate not being good at something. Combined? This activity included more risk than one might first anticipate. But I climbed up, and could stand straight while only barely touching the tree next to me. At various turns, both Tres and Sophie offered hands/shoulders for balance as I walked across, and generally I only needed them for that — a light touch and a small bit of balance. Okay, there were occasional desperate grasps at the help, but I never fell off. Actually, it was a tremendous experience, far more mental than physical (though strong abs help. yay sit-ups). This required focus, patience, and trust in my body. The moment I felt fear, I’d wobble, but if I trusted that my foot would find the rope in front of me, if I both held my body tightly and relaxed into the movement of the rope, I could negotiate the space. Lovely life metaphor, no? And more physical of a workout than just plain meditation. Thus, I recommend it highly.

So, now I think I’ve established five surprising areas of physical grace and ability:
swimming
aerobics
dancing
yoga
tight-rope walking.
I still recommend being careful if you walk with me. Without music or intense concentration in the moment (instead of the zillion of other things in my head), I’m still likely to crash at any moment.

One last development of the day: I broke my dorky streak of not ever going to the bar and agreed to hang out with some peeps at night. Drank some wine, had some fun convo, and didn’t get home until 3:30am. Woot. The party was still going strong, but I was done. Overall, a good day.