“I would love to live
Like a river flows,
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding”
John O’Donohue
I have glimpses of living in flow. Those special moments when everything is in alignment, there is a sense of effortlessness, being is just a simple endeavour requiring almost nothing but the breath. A breath in, a breath out. Then another….
Engaged in a creative project I love, I step back for a cuppa to assess my handiwork and realise the past few hours have not seen a single instance of flow. Instead, despite my joy, I’d somehow become task oriented. Measure this, assemble that, check for fit. Flow was simply absent. Did I enjoy that time? Yes. And could it have been even more rewarding? Yes.
I reflected on this with a dear friend the other day. She had been gardening – feet on the ground, hands in the earth – and had a similar experience. A sense of accomplishment, appreciating the environment with its budding flowers and birdsong, yet something was missing and it was flow. She wondered about “task switching” and I resonated with that. We can be present moment to moment in an activity and yet present more to the task than what else there might be. And by that I mean the more which, in my experience, is deeply connected with flow.
ChatGPT helped me with other words for the more: unseen or invisible realms, interconnectedness, transcendence, the mystery. (Which leads me full-circle to one of my favourite books, Dr. Richard Strozzi-Heckler’s most recent, entitled Embodying the Mystery). There are so many things drawing us away from the mystery, elusive as it is: a desire for control, substituting for something else, avoiding, distracting…..looks like I have my subject for next month’s blog, do check back.
[My private practice has an opening at the moment, so you’re welcome to reach out and enquire if it’s still available].