Everything Dances

Image by The Library of Virginia via Flickr

Before we danced around the room,
We danced in each other’s eyes
And saw our future.
Before our bare feet
Swept stoicism from the floor,
We wordlessly bared our souls
To witness.
A flower in her to hair
To match
The flower in my hair.
It was impossible to glance
Without upturned lips.
A wild abandon of color
Abolished tradition
For a celebration of the spirit.
We all danced—
Everything danced—
It was a moment in time.
Captured
As the last moment
We ever stood still,
And the first moment
We shared together—
Hands clasped
As one.

Before standing in front of all
We sat together en masse.
To each their story
No longer inside
A memory or a song
Poetic with serenade.
The sounds of I.
The sounds of You.
The night before we became
You and I.

When it was time
For your declaration,
A tiny part of you
Said, “I do,” too.
With a smile
Unfit to fit
A most bashful
But picturesque face.
The one that waited
As patiently as impatience could endure
Then led us by hand
To the candleless cake.
With one in my pocket,
For just such a occasion,
We shared a common wish,
And vowed to live its truth.

We cut the cake.
We cut the rug.
The future became the now.
And we danced—
Sock-footed, bare-footed, and alive—
For the rest of our lives.

--
I went to bed after watching the tense, but beautiful Rachel Getting Married, and it was from bed that I saw a vision of the future that prompted this poem. Enjoy.

Creativity is in the NOW

I've been a fan of Tim Sanders since I (finally) read "Love is the Killer App." I worked at broadcast.com and Yahoo! at the same time that he was there, but I don't think we ever met. Since I read the book, I've started paying more attention to what he has to say.

In fact, I just read his most recent blog post about how creativity is found in the NOW. You have to kick out the distractions, don't feel rushed and let it flow to you.

"Schedule your creative solution/creativity time and wall out any distractions. He (John Cleese) explained that creativity requires intense focus, and you likely need to schedule a few hours to harness one good creative sixty minute streak. Each interruption, be it an email or a phone call, will cost you dearly. In the beginning of a session, your mind will likely clutter with random thoughts. Let them pass, and if some urgent to-do pops up, write it on a sticky note and tell your mind to relax and focus on the problem."

Read Tim's entire blog post by clicking here.

My regular readers have seen how much I've been harping on being in the now since I read "Wisdom 2.0." You know that feeling when you first experience something and then it seems like it's everywhere? Being in the NOW is like that for me lately, I see everyone purporting it... awesome.

NOW & LATER?

In all my thoughts, reflected in recent blog posts, I've been talking about committing yourself to the NOW. When you've a task to do, then focus on the task. Avoid being distracted by a text message or a new email or an instant message. In fact, do like I've done, and stop taking your laptop and phone to meetings. Show up with a pen and a sheet of paper and commit to the task of the meeting itself.

The part of "being in the NOW" that I hadn't been able to reconcile until this morning--when I was reading a book about influential persons' favorite places on Earth--was that being solely in the NOW might lead to overindulgence. In other words, I want to enjoy the NOW with my friends and the NOW is represented by one drink after another after another. Hey, I'm in the NOW, so I'm not worrying about the past or the future, right? The problem is that I can't be my best in the NOW of LATER when I'm hungover, so being in the NOW has to have some greater nature to it than what's in front of me at the time.

So, I thought about the point of being in the NOW and realized that it isn't just about giving your best to what you are doing in the NOW, but it is also about being at peace in life. Overindulgence in the NOW makes for an unpeaceful existence in the LATER.

Being at peace is what allows us to focus on the NOW, but it is also what keeps us thinking about the LATER.

Read more bigBADbobisms.

Are you excited to be where you are?

People all move at different speeds. In fact, it's rare that you walk down the sidewalk, or drive or that matter, at the same pace as those that are around you. I once watched a golf video that said I must learn how to swing in tune with my body's rhythm. I suppose that makes sense. I should probably do everything in my body's rhythm.

But, how do you figure out your body's rhythm?

When you're not stopping to smell the roses or rushing to get somewhere, what pace do you walk at? I believe that your normal pace is your body's rhythm. Furthermore, I've an unproven theory that we like music that is in tempo with our body's rhythm.

This morning, @janezander was walking to the car and I was trailing behind. We walked at a much different pace... of course, my food tank was on empty and I was out of energy and she was off to the airport. In other words, she was trying to get somewhere and I was trying to stay somewhere. When we got into the car, her music choices were loud and uptempo; I wished for earplugs.

So, I asked her why she was in such a hurry all of the time and she said, "I'm not in a hurry, I'm just excited to get where I'm going." What I wanted to say in reply was, "Why aren't you excited to be where you are?" Unfortunately, I was braindead, but her reply would have likely been, "Ohhh, Roberto."

I've been writing a lot about being in the NOW. It's been a long time since I thought about body rhythm, but this morning I began to wonder if people need to have the same tempo in order to be good in a relationship. Mind you (especially you, JZ), I was merely thinking about this objectively... does your body rhythm change with age and/or experience? Is your body rhythm different on different days? I can say with complete honesty, that I don't think my body rhythm has ever been any different in my life, faster or slower, than it is now.

My dream is to be with someone that will walk next to me (as often as we can), not behind me or in front of me. Therefore, I think that we'd have to walk at the same pace. Fortunately, most of the time, JZ and I seem to do that, but there are definitely days when she's a few steps ahead.

Go forth, be in the now and do it at your own pace.

Read more bigBADbobisms.

My Morning Repeat: Radiohead

I've been listening to the same Radiohead song on repeat this morning because the beat and the lyrics are in sync with my mood. This morning, I woke without rest and left a place that I didn't want to leave. My restlessness was because I felt hearts part--protection due to confusion--11 hours earlier than the actual, physical good-byes.

Well, if you're really gonna leave, then it's time to get ta goin.' Unfortunately, this is not a "Live in the NOW" mentality.

Street Spirit (Fade Out) lyrics
Rows of houses, all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out

This machine will, will not communicate
These thoughts and the strain I am under
Be a world child, form a circle
Before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again

Cracked eggs, dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see its beady eyes
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out again

Immerse your soul in love
IMMERSE YOUR SOUL IN LOVE.
--
"Fade out again." Ack. No, not again.
"Immerse your soul in love." Yes. Immersion, please.

I still need to work on being in the NOW... we all need to work more on being in the NOW. Take advantage of what's right in front of our eyes because tomorrow we may, once again, be worlds apart... otherwise, our morning repeat will be to fade out again.

Read more bigBADbobisms.