A space of your shape
Trust that there will be.
It is okay if your engine is still cold. I'm starting my year slow, dreaming of snow. You are welcome to join me—take a risk in moving at a dissimilar pace from another. We may create a boom with our clash, then we tune in again to harmonize, or remain as counterpoints. Either way, music continues to be made. Difference is not what causes disconnection, do not fall into the trap of a false separation.
You know, slow is a loaded word. Like many other descriptors or qualifiers, it cannot exist without a reference point for comparison. If we pay close attention to our language, many words are used in reference to something else. They exist singly but barely live alone. We need such words for communication, but when we pass a judgement on them, we inevitably stress and create unnecessary suffering for ourselves.
To describe something as slow implies there is another going at a higher speed in relation. What is slow could have once been fast; a shifting standard. Moreover, more movement in time is not an objective good. Yet, so many of us crank our internal engines to match the external speed that has gone up many "G’s."
How often do we question what is truly fitting for us? Many take our bearings from what is the "norm" of the bubble we are in. Perhaps if I were living in a monastery, I'd be asked to slow down even more. In today’s world, slow is burdened with expectations and judgement. To be slow is to move counter-(mainstream)-culture. But hey, salmons exist!
Emails are starting to find their way into my inbox. Of course, I feel the pull. Technology is terribly efficient in this aspect. An email or a text message is sent and received between two locations quicker than I can articulate my feelings to another.
But, if you are like me, let’s be salmons! 🐟
Everything of nature moves to its own rhythm. An elephant take two years to birth a tonne. A mayfly stays dormant for two years to live that single day. The crocus heralds the beginning of spring; the peony completes it.
The calendar has renewed its year but the season has not. And even if it has, have faith in your cycle.
This winter, I've been tuning into my body even more, allowing myself the rest and idling I craved. Somehow, I had faith in life. There is only so much idling before its will changes again. In flux, always, till it ceases.
Through reflection and inquiry, I realised my body and life energy had given me clues throughout my youth. I enjoy sports but I would not exactly describe myself as nimble or athletic. In my younger days, running was my weakest track and field event, and I stood the highest chance with shot put. As a doubles badminton player, I would be the one at the back lobbing. The sport I was strongest in was air rifle.
My body showed me through sports that its strength was its steeliness and stillness in anchoring to ground. It enabled and encouraged calm and steady precision in shooting, also flexibility and power in racket games. I had forgotten about these aspects of my body since I now have little access to these sports. And for decades after, I had been unaware of my search for a place to belong—a place where stillness and lightness can be appreciated and rewarded.
A senior coach once asked, "What is the Rosslyn-shaped space?" My answer continues to reveal itself with more clarity. The Rosslyn-shaped space is not one with clearly defined physical boundaries. It is a field of quiet where time stands still, where the breath beats solid and slowly as a timpani, resounding through space as thunder, bringing everything else in its field to stillness.
“I hardly move though really I'm traveling a terrific distance.”
—Mary Oliver, “Today”
With god’s grace, I'm starting my year slow continuing life in its beat, “flying low […] letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep,” abiding in my temple of stillness.
May you stay close to your rhythm, and land in the space of your shape.
Announcement: February Freewriting Mini-Series ✍️
Let’s be salmons! 😁 Join me for a virtual mini-series of 3 writing sessions to free whatever trapped or tired energy there is in you, and approach spring with fresh openness. Write to release, renew, and return to a place of love that you are.
This mini-series is led by me, and will benefit the mission of Nested Integral Coaching Constellation (NI2C) to make trauma-informed coaching and programs accessible.
🍯 The Dandelion Notes ~ Writer’s Fund
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Hello & welcome — I am glad you are here. I am Rosslyn Chay, an inquirer, poet, and coach. The Dandelion Notes are field notes on my process and learnings through my human journey as I go on a quest to mend our fractured relationship with our nature.