Slow Dance

7 March 2019

To do or to be? That truly is a recurring question.
Do Be Do Be Do… Like a catchy Sinatra tune we cannot shake. Eternally on repeat on the turntable that is our mind.

So how did we get to dance into March already? I am still working on my New Year’s resolutions… Or at least so it seems. Does this mean I have not officially started doing enough? Or have I perhaps been doing so much that time has passed me by?

Mindful parenting, minimalism and teaching yoga constantly expose me to the friction of a wealth of contradictions. On the one hand, I find myself lecturing about the need to pause, to simplify and to observe. On the other hand, there is me attempting to welcome equanimity in the midst of the kids’ school programmes, my writing deadlines and teaching schedules.

But is this friction between doing and being such a bad thing? As far as I know – and this covers pretty much the full extent of my Physics knowledge – friction transforms kinetic energy into thermal energy. And I also seem to remember that it slows down the two objects that move past each other. Exactly like the warming embrace in a slow dance between two strangers in the night. Do Be Do Be Do.

As long as both doing and being (the metaphorical dance partners in this show) contribute a balanced amount of effort, the dance should remain an elegant waltz around movement and slowing down. I am rather looking forward to slow dance the year away in the warm embrace of such a contradictory equilibrium. No need to feel bad. Not about not doing enough. Not about not pausing enough.