The Work is like an isometric exercise. At least that is how I’ve come to experience it.
After periods of ongoing efforts, both internally and externally, I’ve come to see that it is during the interval of letting go and relaxing, that my “work” muscle grows. This is a phenomenon I’ve come to appreciate.
Take for instance the recent three-month Course of Study we had at Claymont. For those of us participating as staff, our commitment started well before the course itself. But students also had to prepare— adjusting schedules and life-styles in order to participate. For the three months of the course, the program involved students and staff alike. We met from 7:30 in the morning to 10:00 at night, sometimes seven days a week. The Work was not just in showing up, but in struggling to remember daily inner tasks, contemplating weekly Themes, understanding new ideas and in learning complex movements. We also had to work together. All this involved degrees of inner struggle. It was an intense period of Work.
In my analogy, that kind of effort is the part of an isometric exercise where my hands push against each other as hard as they can. After pushing, I release the tension and relax the muscles. It is just then, during the period of letting go, that the muscle is built.
So it is with the Work.
After the Course of Study, it was apparent that the “next step” for all of us was to take a break. To allow the work we had done to settle within us and breathe. Much like sowing a seed in the soil and then leaving it alone to germinate. Just like relaxing a muscle after working it, to allow it to grow.
So here, at the Grand Palladium in Jamaica, I am doing the relaxation part of my isometric exercise.
