Three beautiful meditations, Kate! But the one that especially sticks with me is of your playing with your child, and how badly you want to hold on to the moment - how we all want these moments to last forever. I want to say with complete certainty that your son may not remember that specific moment, but he will remember some, and most importantly, he will remember how much love his mom gave him when he was a kid, and will cherish it. 💛⭐💛
Lovely way to think about it, Troy. Thank you! Yes I think love is some kind of abstract energy partly made of these memories (a bit like Jules is talking about in her comment perhaps). 💙💙💙
A beautiful reflection, there’s this idea of cognitive reserve in psycho-biology and essentially that the rich and complex environments that caregiving to children brings (noisy/messy in my case!) might lead to higher levels of cognitive reserve in later life. Your writing made me think in response to ‘Does it still matter? Is it still worth it? If the passing of time erases this moment’ that these moments and memories are like transparent building blocks for the future!
There’s also evidence that mums pay attention to memory , it’s more salient for them because memory ability changes throughout the pregnancy and post partum stages, which is curious for the way we think about memory more generally perhaps?
I am always curious to hear your angle and perspective. This notion about the complexity of environments on cognition and perhaps memory is fascinating. As for mums and memory postpartum, I wonder how much fatigue is a factor at least at the start? I was always thinking I’ll take a photo because my brain is so fried right now. :) And then amazingly the photos really do help! Maybe the act of stopping to take it also creates the memory?
Your writing makes me think! increased cognitive load leads to the fatigue you have mentioned (dads and other caregivers too, though less researched). Although this is where ideas of capacity and space become interesting around our memory and it's helpful to think about attention. We think of working memory as having a capacity, hence mental load of motherhood resonates with so many, but we are probably talking about the quantity of things we need to pay attention to and process in a meaning making way. Dual attention tasks show that depending on the type of tasks, we can appear to do two types of processing at once, I can iron and listen to your podcasts for example! of course the ironing is practicsed and the listening is effortful, and I may have to relisten if the ironing tasks becomes more effortful (dual processing is less efficient). Perhaps in taking a photo, the real act is one of attention. Attention aids our processing of memories so stopping to take a photo is both giving attention, and creating a memory reminder, both aids memory processing, retrieval and reduce the liklihood of forgetting.
Stunning, beautiful, an entirely *present* read, Kate. So many things I'd like to quote.
I think I needed this one this morning. I've been entirely devoid of the "now" this last week or so and living in a constant rush of what needs to be done "next".
Thank you for slowing me down for a few moments and reminding me of the importance of the present.
"We love it and it goes. It goes somewhere invisible, undocumented and often forgotten."
PS I think this forgotten and indivisible kind of experience / love may have something to do both with the subtle memories Jules discussed and idea of love from Troy. Enjoying piecing these comments together!
Ah this is such a lovely comment, Nathan. Thank you! Pleased these thoughts and sketches seem to have resonated with some of my favorite writers as well.
PS re: skiing. I've only ever skied once! (Gasp!) It was amazing, though. Obviously I was terrible, but the freedom and exhilaration were great.
I think I get some of that same meditation from bouldering. It's one of the few things that pulls me into the present and makes me forget about everything else.
Writing does that too, but there's a certain randomness to when and if writing elicits that state. I desire to get there, but it doesn't always happen.
Obviously terrible 😆 it’s hard the first time for sure! I’ve tried bouldering a few times and can see this for sure. (I’m pretty terrible at that and in awe of those in the zone moving upside down etc). Wondering if you go indoors or on the rock? Only because some of the skiing thing I was getting at is that yes, it’s about nature, but also it’s about the movement of the body.
(Sorry so many replies! I’m on a mobile this week!)
Yes yes! But also I maybe miswrote — nature of course is so wonderful but I wonder if the movements themselves and physical exertion are maybe even as or more important here? I don’t know! Practically I find bouldering a lot easier indoors 😆
I definitely get that. The movement, the flow. For me with climbing, it's all about static fluidity (a term I just made up). I'm not so much into what's termed "comp style" climbs (the kind of stuff you'll see at the Olympics and in boulder competitions) but more want to embrace the wall as a meditative flow state.
So yeah, I reckon you're doing the exact same with skiing ☺️
I quit skiing in favour of snowboarding, never looked back, but, yes, perfect description. Ah, I have to go to the mountains again soon, it has been too long! All moments count, even if not remembered, everything adds, moment by moment, and some will resurface at the unlikeliest of moments. It's interesting, I, too, am reflecting on my writing on Substack specifically and what I want to focus on next, because time, we never have enough of it.
Ah, a boarder! Great. My last ski weekend was with an old friend who is a ski instructor - turned - snowboarder. One day you will have to join us!
Agree that this has implication in terms of writing and publishing, on Substack or elsewhere. I have said it elsewhere but I love the idea in the Burkeman Four Thousand Weeks books about saying no to the things you love to make room for the things you love even more.
Thanks Alexander!
(ps I have skimpy WiFi this week and saved your Nice train ride,..wondering if it has connection m with these ideas, let’s see 😉)
Thanks Kathleen for getting me to think more about this topic. When we experience time differently, I think we only realize it in hindsight. So, while skiing, when you're in "the zone" so that you're not really aware of time, it's only when you're done that you recognize that hours have passed. It is sweet indeed to be relieved of time's tyranny.
That’s a lovely way to put it, David. I’m hindsight, time can balloon or squeeze up and disappear. I’m curious about the way writing seems to expand time (as antidote?).
I think that memory is not only a case of recalling an event - it can build within us in subtler ways. In the example you give, you or your son may not remember one specific activity you enjoyed together on any given day, but it creates one tiny addition to the bond you are building, so in this sense it qualifies as a "memory" - you both know you love each other a little more even if you don't remember why! Instinctively he has the right idea..."let's just play!"
I am most "present" when I write. This is the time when I achieve the focus that means I am released from any other concerns or anxieties. Perhaps it is our diminishing ability to live in the present as children do that makes us feel as if that time speeds up as we age.
I once stood at the top of the Olympic ski jump in Innsbruck and I just thought that anyone who flings themselves off the top of that has to be insane! 😄
This idea about memory is so interesting and must be true on different levels. I think of muscle memory for example. When we don’t realiZe our bodies remember how to do something. Or the way I instinctively drive to a certain place from my parents’ house without being able to explain it or give directions.
Those ski jumps are crazy! Have you seen the film about the British ski jumper? Quite funny and inspirational.
The brain is so complicated and amazing. There are all these things that we can do; all these things we "know," and sometimes think we know. Magical.
Yes, Eddie the Eagle. I've seen the film and also I listened to an interview with him fairly recently. What a courageous man. I remember watching him when he competed in the Olympics. It wouldn't happen now because they changed the rules after Eddie. National Treasure, First Class. 😊
Love this framing of the “subtle” ways we bank our memories within the body, Jules. Every moment embedded somehow in a larger realm of emotion and experience. So many memories pass through my mind each day, I can't catch them all and hold them as dearly as I'd like, but I know they're there, swimming freely in the body. That notion brings me such peace.
Absolutely — each of my favorite works carries a bank of memories with them, divided into two categories: memories of listening and those of performing them. (The latter is amplified by muscle memory, as you so wonderfully explored in the pieces you shared this week!)
I'm so glad you like that thought Michael. I have found that sometimes, these seemingly lost memories can be unlocked, even temporarily, by the thinking processes involved in trying to write. It happened to me only this week. A fleeting memory of some object or other from my childhood that I thought I had completely forgotten. And now I've forgotten it again! 😊Funny thing, memory. I liken mine to a sort of crazy machine with bells, whistles and lights, ball bearings flying around everywhere. You never know what will pop out, or where! Maybe it's all in there, stored away.
Thanks for your piece on Being & Becoming. I'd add Wittgenstein to the mix. His writing is dry and largely incomprehensible, but he's also far out there in his thoughts on consciousness, particularly in language/linguistics and I'd say more relevant than ever in the AI present. Heidegger is another, though discredited for his inaction/collusion with the Nazis during his tenure at Frieberg. Being and Time is a monstrous undertaking to read in isolation, but taken as part of the long road of Idealist philosophy and as a reworking of the standard western Christiantiy, it can be a great stimulus. His central idea is as simple as it gets. He calls consciousness (in German) 'Being thrown out of Being into Becoming' or as you might see it Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise. Another important thread running through modern philosophy, is the idea of authenticity, of being authentic, which might be interpreted as being naturally who you are, a little like the notion of grace in Chistianity, or being free of 'persona', which is the socially constructed identity. I've always been taken with the huge difference between me alone, and me with others. Alone, I'm quite melancholy and much more serious. In public I'm funny and optimistic, and often actually feel that way! I can't square that circle... I've written stories and novels (largely unsuccessfully in terms of publishing or earning a living from it) most of my adult life. If I don't write I become depressed. I think this is because only when I'm writing can I make use of my experience, reflection and learning, not to mention the writers I've read. Put another way, writing is pure solipsism, me and my arcane, alchemical mind having a private time of it away from the discourse of the everyday (Heidegger's a key influence here as well). The influence writers have on consciousness is a remarkable thing. Consciousness might easily be called Interpretation of Reality. Reading great writers in youth and young adulthood, though I don't rule out Stephen King or Philip K. Dick or many other 'genre' writers, is going to permanently alter your consciousness. The influence of, oh god the Russians full stop: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Pushkin, Gogol, Bulgakov, and on and on (I appreciate I'm a bit bloke-ish), but then Russia had a Writers Institute like no other state on earth, and prized writing so highly. But back to your (I hope) main point; I've been doing Transcendental Meditation for a short while, and though a western cynic struggling with Eastern mysticism, it has been immediately beneficial. The method is simple (though no doubt it can be dived into and would become subtle and complex), unlike trying to become a Buddhist and adopting a vast panoply of ideas, or Mindfulness which is terribly empty (no pun intended). The mystic element is Brahma, pure consciousness infinite, unbounded, within which everything is. This aligns with the most modern theoretical physics (atomic and quantum). Brahma is within, might be the mantra. Apologies for the lack of coherence here.
You bring up many great Time philosophers, Edy. Thank you! It’s interesting to consider the aspect of Christianity here. I like the many directions you travel in here - there are gaps but that makes it more dynamic to think about. For me, this concept of both time and presence in terms of religion has most to do with Zen Buddhism and associated art/literature. Thanks again.
Thanks as always DKW! Finally catching up on newsletters today and I’m enamored by so many writers on this platform and your beautiful meditations. I’m reminded that those Ansel Adams-esk images are not just pieces of simulacra to be catalogued by photographs or watched like a BANFF film festival entry or a Warren Miller movie, but physical settings of our own stories. Im assuming that the “pen’s ink gliding onto smooth paper” is not just a metaphor. Recently, ive been shifting to exploring alternative mediums for writing, as well as locations, to spur on new creative outputs, especially as the weather in New England shifts into spring. Thanks again!
I really enjoyed this three-part essay, Kate. I want to call it the most European thing I've read from you so far. I don't really know what I mean, but I know it's a good thing. 😊
I find that there's a space between reading and writing where I find myself most "present". Perhaps there's something about the losses and gains in transfer when I write about what I read, the churn of thought, that contributes to that.
I also feel present, in perhaps a different way, when standing in my local botanical gardens, where the trees are in charge and humans go to pay their respects.
The trees are in charge! That’s great. And between reading and writing is a lovely idea about the brain processing.
I enjoy this European comment very much and am intrigued. I wonder if it has to do with style or freedom or culture? It’s ok if you don’t know (or want to say). It’s making me think!
I was intrigued by your post - and by my comment.😊 I think it's got something to do with the existential questions you pose about time. Linked to that, there's a gently meditiative tone too, which makes me think of European novelists. And perhaps the Alps made me think of Thomas Mann?
Kate, I really enjoyed reading this as it got me thinking on a number of things. In the first part where you talk about your skiing experience my thoughts saw this as a metaphor for anything in our life where risk, dedication, commitment, training, love, etc... are combined. How often do we find ourselves on that precipice, peeking over the edge, knowing the risk involved while also anticipating the reward? The first time we take that leap into the unknown could be frightening but with time we gain confidence and knowledge and experience. How easy it might be to never approach that edge, to stay on the safe flat ground. But all the wonder and thrill and reward happens when we slip over the edge into the exhilaration of the unknown.
Thank you, Matthew! I think that’s a great way to read the metaphor. So applicable to different parts of our lives. And then the ability to relax into the moment (even challenging ones) comes from this knowledge and understanding.
Three beautiful meditations, Kate! But the one that especially sticks with me is of your playing with your child, and how badly you want to hold on to the moment - how we all want these moments to last forever. I want to say with complete certainty that your son may not remember that specific moment, but he will remember some, and most importantly, he will remember how much love his mom gave him when he was a kid, and will cherish it. 💛⭐💛
Lovely way to think about it, Troy. Thank you! Yes I think love is some kind of abstract energy partly made of these memories (a bit like Jules is talking about in her comment perhaps). 💙💙💙
A beautiful reflection, there’s this idea of cognitive reserve in psycho-biology and essentially that the rich and complex environments that caregiving to children brings (noisy/messy in my case!) might lead to higher levels of cognitive reserve in later life. Your writing made me think in response to ‘Does it still matter? Is it still worth it? If the passing of time erases this moment’ that these moments and memories are like transparent building blocks for the future!
There’s also evidence that mums pay attention to memory , it’s more salient for them because memory ability changes throughout the pregnancy and post partum stages, which is curious for the way we think about memory more generally perhaps?
Thank you, Leila!
I am always curious to hear your angle and perspective. This notion about the complexity of environments on cognition and perhaps memory is fascinating. As for mums and memory postpartum, I wonder how much fatigue is a factor at least at the start? I was always thinking I’ll take a photo because my brain is so fried right now. :) And then amazingly the photos really do help! Maybe the act of stopping to take it also creates the memory?
Your writing makes me think! increased cognitive load leads to the fatigue you have mentioned (dads and other caregivers too, though less researched). Although this is where ideas of capacity and space become interesting around our memory and it's helpful to think about attention. We think of working memory as having a capacity, hence mental load of motherhood resonates with so many, but we are probably talking about the quantity of things we need to pay attention to and process in a meaning making way. Dual attention tasks show that depending on the type of tasks, we can appear to do two types of processing at once, I can iron and listen to your podcasts for example! of course the ironing is practicsed and the listening is effortful, and I may have to relisten if the ironing tasks becomes more effortful (dual processing is less efficient). Perhaps in taking a photo, the real act is one of attention. Attention aids our processing of memories so stopping to take a photo is both giving attention, and creating a memory reminder, both aids memory processing, retrieval and reduce the liklihood of forgetting.
Thanks for this fantastic explanation 💜 Lots to think about!
Stunning, beautiful, an entirely *present* read, Kate. So many things I'd like to quote.
I think I needed this one this morning. I've been entirely devoid of the "now" this last week or so and living in a constant rush of what needs to be done "next".
Thank you for slowing me down for a few moments and reminding me of the importance of the present.
"We love it and it goes. It goes somewhere invisible, undocumented and often forgotten."
PS I think this forgotten and indivisible kind of experience / love may have something to do both with the subtle memories Jules discussed and idea of love from Troy. Enjoying piecing these comments together!
Ah this is such a lovely comment, Nathan. Thank you! Pleased these thoughts and sketches seem to have resonated with some of my favorite writers as well.
🤗
PS re: skiing. I've only ever skied once! (Gasp!) It was amazing, though. Obviously I was terrible, but the freedom and exhilaration were great.
I think I get some of that same meditation from bouldering. It's one of the few things that pulls me into the present and makes me forget about everything else.
Writing does that too, but there's a certain randomness to when and if writing elicits that state. I desire to get there, but it doesn't always happen.
Obviously terrible 😆 it’s hard the first time for sure! I’ve tried bouldering a few times and can see this for sure. (I’m pretty terrible at that and in awe of those in the zone moving upside down etc). Wondering if you go indoors or on the rock? Only because some of the skiing thing I was getting at is that yes, it’s about nature, but also it’s about the movement of the body.
(Sorry so many replies! I’m on a mobile this week!)
I've barely been out on the rock, but I totally know that sense of being in nature that it also provides.
Mostly though I'm indoors, which is a shame because there's some beautiful spots for it down here in Victoria.
Yes yes! But also I maybe miswrote — nature of course is so wonderful but I wonder if the movements themselves and physical exertion are maybe even as or more important here? I don’t know! Practically I find bouldering a lot easier indoors 😆
Oh and you’ve got all those venomous things!
Oh, haha, no it's me just not reading properly 🤣
I definitely get that. The movement, the flow. For me with climbing, it's all about static fluidity (a term I just made up). I'm not so much into what's termed "comp style" climbs (the kind of stuff you'll see at the Olympics and in boulder competitions) but more want to embrace the wall as a meditative flow state.
So yeah, I reckon you're doing the exact same with skiing ☺️
I quit skiing in favour of snowboarding, never looked back, but, yes, perfect description. Ah, I have to go to the mountains again soon, it has been too long! All moments count, even if not remembered, everything adds, moment by moment, and some will resurface at the unlikeliest of moments. It's interesting, I, too, am reflecting on my writing on Substack specifically and what I want to focus on next, because time, we never have enough of it.
Ah, a boarder! Great. My last ski weekend was with an old friend who is a ski instructor - turned - snowboarder. One day you will have to join us!
Agree that this has implication in terms of writing and publishing, on Substack or elsewhere. I have said it elsewhere but I love the idea in the Burkeman Four Thousand Weeks books about saying no to the things you love to make room for the things you love even more.
Thanks Alexander!
(ps I have skimpy WiFi this week and saved your Nice train ride,..wondering if it has connection m with these ideas, let’s see 😉)
"saying no to the things you love to make room for the things you love even more." Need more room... plenty of room on the train, nice train. 😅
Thanks Kathleen for getting me to think more about this topic. When we experience time differently, I think we only realize it in hindsight. So, while skiing, when you're in "the zone" so that you're not really aware of time, it's only when you're done that you recognize that hours have passed. It is sweet indeed to be relieved of time's tyranny.
That’s a lovely way to put it, David. I’m hindsight, time can balloon or squeeze up and disappear. I’m curious about the way writing seems to expand time (as antidote?).
Thank you!
I think that memory is not only a case of recalling an event - it can build within us in subtler ways. In the example you give, you or your son may not remember one specific activity you enjoyed together on any given day, but it creates one tiny addition to the bond you are building, so in this sense it qualifies as a "memory" - you both know you love each other a little more even if you don't remember why! Instinctively he has the right idea..."let's just play!"
I am most "present" when I write. This is the time when I achieve the focus that means I am released from any other concerns or anxieties. Perhaps it is our diminishing ability to live in the present as children do that makes us feel as if that time speeds up as we age.
I once stood at the top of the Olympic ski jump in Innsbruck and I just thought that anyone who flings themselves off the top of that has to be insane! 😄
Lovely piece, Kate. Thank you.
And thank you, Jules!
(Week on a phone…🙃 / off computer)
Glad to hear it! Rest, I hope! 💛
I find myself in Egypt! Yes, rest 😉
Fabulous! Recommended holiday reading- "Death on the Nile" by Agatha Christie! 😍
💯!
This idea about memory is so interesting and must be true on different levels. I think of muscle memory for example. When we don’t realiZe our bodies remember how to do something. Or the way I instinctively drive to a certain place from my parents’ house without being able to explain it or give directions.
Those ski jumps are crazy! Have you seen the film about the British ski jumper? Quite funny and inspirational.
The brain is so complicated and amazing. There are all these things that we can do; all these things we "know," and sometimes think we know. Magical.
Yes, Eddie the Eagle. I've seen the film and also I listened to an interview with him fairly recently. What a courageous man. I remember watching him when he competed in the Olympics. It wouldn't happen now because they changed the rules after Eddie. National Treasure, First Class. 😊
Love this framing of the “subtle” ways we bank our memories within the body, Jules. Every moment embedded somehow in a larger realm of emotion and experience. So many memories pass through my mind each day, I can't catch them all and hold them as dearly as I'd like, but I know they're there, swimming freely in the body. That notion brings me such peace.
I think music must hold some of this space as well…
Absolutely — each of my favorite works carries a bank of memories with them, divided into two categories: memories of listening and those of performing them. (The latter is amplified by muscle memory, as you so wonderfully explored in the pieces you shared this week!)
💙💙
I'm so glad you like that thought Michael. I have found that sometimes, these seemingly lost memories can be unlocked, even temporarily, by the thinking processes involved in trying to write. It happened to me only this week. A fleeting memory of some object or other from my childhood that I thought I had completely forgotten. And now I've forgotten it again! 😊Funny thing, memory. I liken mine to a sort of crazy machine with bells, whistles and lights, ball bearings flying around everywhere. You never know what will pop out, or where! Maybe it's all in there, stored away.
Love that image of your "crazy machine." 🤣 The act of writing indeed creates a wild construction zone on the page!
Thanks for your piece on Being & Becoming. I'd add Wittgenstein to the mix. His writing is dry and largely incomprehensible, but he's also far out there in his thoughts on consciousness, particularly in language/linguistics and I'd say more relevant than ever in the AI present. Heidegger is another, though discredited for his inaction/collusion with the Nazis during his tenure at Frieberg. Being and Time is a monstrous undertaking to read in isolation, but taken as part of the long road of Idealist philosophy and as a reworking of the standard western Christiantiy, it can be a great stimulus. His central idea is as simple as it gets. He calls consciousness (in German) 'Being thrown out of Being into Becoming' or as you might see it Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise. Another important thread running through modern philosophy, is the idea of authenticity, of being authentic, which might be interpreted as being naturally who you are, a little like the notion of grace in Chistianity, or being free of 'persona', which is the socially constructed identity. I've always been taken with the huge difference between me alone, and me with others. Alone, I'm quite melancholy and much more serious. In public I'm funny and optimistic, and often actually feel that way! I can't square that circle... I've written stories and novels (largely unsuccessfully in terms of publishing or earning a living from it) most of my adult life. If I don't write I become depressed. I think this is because only when I'm writing can I make use of my experience, reflection and learning, not to mention the writers I've read. Put another way, writing is pure solipsism, me and my arcane, alchemical mind having a private time of it away from the discourse of the everyday (Heidegger's a key influence here as well). The influence writers have on consciousness is a remarkable thing. Consciousness might easily be called Interpretation of Reality. Reading great writers in youth and young adulthood, though I don't rule out Stephen King or Philip K. Dick or many other 'genre' writers, is going to permanently alter your consciousness. The influence of, oh god the Russians full stop: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Pushkin, Gogol, Bulgakov, and on and on (I appreciate I'm a bit bloke-ish), but then Russia had a Writers Institute like no other state on earth, and prized writing so highly. But back to your (I hope) main point; I've been doing Transcendental Meditation for a short while, and though a western cynic struggling with Eastern mysticism, it has been immediately beneficial. The method is simple (though no doubt it can be dived into and would become subtle and complex), unlike trying to become a Buddhist and adopting a vast panoply of ideas, or Mindfulness which is terribly empty (no pun intended). The mystic element is Brahma, pure consciousness infinite, unbounded, within which everything is. This aligns with the most modern theoretical physics (atomic and quantum). Brahma is within, might be the mantra. Apologies for the lack of coherence here.
You bring up many great Time philosophers, Edy. Thank you! It’s interesting to consider the aspect of Christianity here. I like the many directions you travel in here - there are gaps but that makes it more dynamic to think about. For me, this concept of both time and presence in terms of religion has most to do with Zen Buddhism and associated art/literature. Thanks again.
Thanks as always DKW! Finally catching up on newsletters today and I’m enamored by so many writers on this platform and your beautiful meditations. I’m reminded that those Ansel Adams-esk images are not just pieces of simulacra to be catalogued by photographs or watched like a BANFF film festival entry or a Warren Miller movie, but physical settings of our own stories. Im assuming that the “pen’s ink gliding onto smooth paper” is not just a metaphor. Recently, ive been shifting to exploring alternative mediums for writing, as well as locations, to spur on new creative outputs, especially as the weather in New England shifts into spring. Thanks again!
So much in New England weather for inspiration no doubt. That sounds promising and exciting!
Interesting idea about photography as well, whether real or metaphor. Thanks so much, Brian.
I really enjoyed this three-part essay, Kate. I want to call it the most European thing I've read from you so far. I don't really know what I mean, but I know it's a good thing. 😊
I find that there's a space between reading and writing where I find myself most "present". Perhaps there's something about the losses and gains in transfer when I write about what I read, the churn of thought, that contributes to that.
I also feel present, in perhaps a different way, when standing in my local botanical gardens, where the trees are in charge and humans go to pay their respects.
The trees are in charge! That’s great. And between reading and writing is a lovely idea about the brain processing.
I enjoy this European comment very much and am intrigued. I wonder if it has to do with style or freedom or culture? It’s ok if you don’t know (or want to say). It’s making me think!
I was intrigued by your post - and by my comment.😊 I think it's got something to do with the existential questions you pose about time. Linked to that, there's a gently meditiative tone too, which makes me think of European novelists. And perhaps the Alps made me think of Thomas Mann?
I’ll take all that ☺️
😊
Beautiful writing
Merci ☺️🙏🏽
Skiing. What a perfect vehicle for exploring the present. This was wonderful.
Thanks Ben 😊 i thought the skiing might work for you!
Kate, I really enjoyed reading this as it got me thinking on a number of things. In the first part where you talk about your skiing experience my thoughts saw this as a metaphor for anything in our life where risk, dedication, commitment, training, love, etc... are combined. How often do we find ourselves on that precipice, peeking over the edge, knowing the risk involved while also anticipating the reward? The first time we take that leap into the unknown could be frightening but with time we gain confidence and knowledge and experience. How easy it might be to never approach that edge, to stay on the safe flat ground. But all the wonder and thrill and reward happens when we slip over the edge into the exhilaration of the unknown.
Thank you, Matthew! I think that’s a great way to read the metaphor. So applicable to different parts of our lives. And then the ability to relax into the moment (even challenging ones) comes from this knowledge and understanding.