Thursday, January 21, 2010

Nert

I had a fantasy while on holiday (exiled from phones and computers) that I would next blog on ertia. It pleased me that there was no such word. I had the sense that I had made a new discovery. Liberation from the forces that bind. I found I was easing my way into all sorts of unlikely pm activities: cycling on bikes we had carted across the Alps to the coast; dipping oars in Okarito's Lagoon; walking steadilly up steep inclines to breath-taking lookout points. I was gleaming with the satisfaction of someone who was engaging with the physical world, and taking the body in hand at the same time. Inspired by a Doug Sellman book, I had even taken up a feminised version of morning exercises and stretches - sit-ups, squats, pressuppishes and the like.

What I have since discovered is the smooth slide back to what I now like to think of as the fulcrum of the inertia/momentum seesaw. There is little to boast about here in this straddled position, but there is a certain peace about not getting too surrendered to momentum, nor too stilled by that other force, unleashed by inactivity. The year has begun and so I give myself to what I must: my work; my hosting. I breathe deeply. I forgive myself for what I'm not achieving. I exercise heart and brain to remember what will really count this (and every) year: relationships. And ... bushy haired and creaky ... I still (20 days in) do my first-thing five minute Doug Sellman routine.

9 comments:

  1. Oh yay, she's back!

    And I do believe there's much to be celebrated in and about the 'straddled position'. Fulcrums are essential energy, I think...

    (Wasn't last night's Georgian 'manful sobbing' workshop fabulous?)

    xx

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  2. Thanks cbx. Yes it felt great. I'm reminded how music is a container for feeling - good to expand the repertoire on both counts. px

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  3. 5 minutes is good! Take it quietly. Signed PE guru (yeah right).

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  4. I like that term, ertia. Nert is nice, too.

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  5. Hi Dana. They're proving useful ... especially nert. (Nerty but nice).

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  6. Oh Good, so now I can follow you, and your strange new world of words.

    I once dreamed of the word 'phalanx'. I did not at the time know its meaning. It gave me such pleasure to discover in time that the word existed as a body of men, joined together in battle to form a wall.

    I googled 'ertia' and found it it to be a 'lost positive'a word which without its negative prefix ceases to be a word.

    There may be some meaning in this for you.

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  7. Hello! Thanks for coming over to my place, and for your comment.
    What a muscly potent dream symbol, and how clever our unconscious is, not just to access the archetype, but to deliver it by means of a calling card with a mysterious name.
    The 'lost positive' gives me much to chew on.

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  8. This is such a compelling way to organize your blog's content, but the way. I love it.

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  9. Thanks for your comment Dana. I am encouraged!

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