Demonstrating Dog Rhythm
Everyone and everything has a different rhythm. Gregge Tiffen (The Journey Continues: Time Travels, July, 2010)
No, I’m not changing my focus to commentary on music. Whew! I was musing about a title for the topic as it emerged this morning, realizing that being out of my rhythm in my daily life makes me blue (at best, but honestly it makes me cranky and downright disagreeable to which others can attest).
I wonder if the simple answer for many of life’s conundrums isn’t for each of us to get into our unique rhythm, not the one that the world and its systems have imposed, but the one that is unique to us. What if angst and conflict in relationships is rooted in nothing more than that our individual rhythms clash? What if the anger and fear that we witness daily in the world is growing from those same roots?
This musing comes from self-observation through several recent experiences. I’ve experienced the cellular constriction (I personally feel it in my shoulders, neck and stomach) of stress and the internal chaos that ensued as I attempted to meet what I perceived as a demand from someone I’m working on a project with. I realized that the stress was my body’s reaction to being taken out of its natural rhythm and flow. As I looked deeper, I also found that there was no demand imposed by another at all, rather what I believed to be an expectation that I didn’t take time to check out.
I’ve also experienced the joy and ease of flow spending several days with a friend with no plan, no schedule and no expectation. We each honored our unique individual needs, desires, and rhythms coming together with minimal planning for meals, conversations, and an entire afternoon and evening watching movies and loving on our pups.
The later represents what an easy flow life holds the potential to be. We find that ease reflected all around in nature. Each tree grows in its rhythm. Baby birds hatch. They are fed by parents. They grow and fledge in their unique rhythm. The rhythm changes in response to weather, food, and surrounding conditions. The rhythm of the flowing creek changes from season to season: slowing in the winter cold, moving with more velocity the temperature warms and ice and snow melt.
Growing Up ... When Will They Fledge?
Perhaps as we navigate the complexities we’ve created in our relationships and the systems of the world, one of the basics that we might return to is discovering and honoring the individual rhythm that is uniquely ours. Perhaps some of the ‘blues’ (and worse) that we experience can be remedied by letting go of that which is not compatible with our rhythm, including beliefs, habits, other people, projects, jobs, and the list and the beat go on.
What’s your experience? What do you think?
The Sun Has Her Rhythm Too!