Clutching a Fiji water bottle, I enter Kauffman Park Shelter House. The occasion? The fiftieth anniversary celebration of West Marshall Community School District.
Before this hotly contested consolidation of six schools, my class consisted of five boys and two girls. Being an anxious and somewhat dehydrated seventeen-year-old-senior, knowing I had to memorize the names and remember the faces of sixty-seven new classmates made me sweat.
Fast forward fifty years: I mingle with the crowd, still perspiring, (this time because it’s a very warm evening), while nursing my water bottle. I squint at name tags. I valiantly try to make my voice heard above the dull roar. I try to remember.
When I decide instead to simply keep moving physically when it feels good, to keep my body language open, to sit down when I’m tired, to eat when I’m hungry, the connections with others seem to happen more easily. My attention moves from trying to remember to being fully present in my body and fully present with the person in front of me. Some of my neural connections begin wiring and firing, the process brain research says retrieves memories, which enhances my experience.
Bob Klein* wrote a thought provoking message, that I received after the reunion, in response to last week’s post:
Water is like consciousness. For most people consciousness (attention) is in the form of ice, cold and unmoving. When it thaws, it can flow. When it flows, it can connect. When it connects, it can dissolve and merge things together.
Be sure and go to the blog www.NickyMendenhall.blogspot.com and comment and see what others are saying.
Thanks for exploring the mystery – Nicky Mendenhall
*You can learn more about Bob Klein by visiting his website: www.movementsofmagic.com.