This summer, movement started on the surface of Lago di Como, Italy: beautiful weather, great location and our small boat and water ski’s. The kids enjoyed the skiing and I found myself swimming to the other side of the lake every other day. It’s over a kilometer and I’ve never liked swimming in my life and hardly did it. ‘Swimming’ is for sailors the euphemism for capsizing. So I think I took this literally and told everybody that I don’t like swimming. I surprised myself. It turns out to be less demanding on my joints and I cherish the illusion that my shoulders and back become visibly stronger.
I read de Winter’s last book: VSV. It inspired me to write my next book in a new way. A combination of personal experiences added with fiction that could have happened. His book is a great example. He adds angels to the story and still you feel: ‘This could be true.’ Movement starts with Theo van Gogh (the producer killed by a muslim fundamentalist) as a patron angel.
Before my early-morning-sitting-crossed-legged-next-to-the-lake-practice (meditation sounds too much for it) I read every day a few pages in ‘Seeking the heart of wisdom: The path of insight meditation,’ by Goldstein and Kornfield. Not a book to read from front to end but it doesn’t matter where you open it: there is always a message for you to contemplate upon. I read about karma and dharma and there is some early understanding coming around these words. It explained to me the often used quote in Theory U: ‘The success of the intervention depends upon the interior condition of the intervenor,’ by O’ Brien. He must have been a Buddhist himself.
Friends visited us and found some distraction. Sometimes you can’t move forward and you don’t want to sit still and be with yourself. The distraction of waterskiing, dialoging and having dinner together is great.
I had some difficulty to get into Holiday mode. The day before we left I tried ‘mail chimp’ out to send emails to announce the workshop with Joseph Jaworski. Every day I wanted to know the respond rate and if there would be any participants. After a week I felt reassured and could dedicate my time to summer activities. There were a few complaints that I send too many emails to the same people. Sorry about that. It’s the ease of mailchimp and my lack of experience regarding marketing. But I am pretty happy about the response rate and the number of people coming to our wonderful meeting! There is something moving.
Movement came to a sudden halt when I tried to haul a friend out of the water. My back gave in for the first time in my life. Ibuprofen, swimming and some rest did the trick to get up (but without the running).