New Ways to Move

There are probably more valuable and awesome reasons to live in New York that I don't know.  People ask if I go to see plays, or concerts, or performances, and the answer is that sometimes I do, but not that often.  It's just expensive, and sometimes it's nice to have downtime.

But it's nice to have that option.  There are famous and fabulous performances happening every week.  But it's also nice to have many other options, all the time.  It's nice to be around such a diversity of people, to take public transit (ok, that's not always nice, but I far prefer it to cars), to have huge, beautiful parks, and lots of interesting people.  And tonight, because I could, I went to a Feldenkrais class for the first time.

I've lived in my body for more than 33 years and it still always amazes me to discover it in new ways.   The simple act of rolling the shoulder, lifting the head, arching the back, or curving it in new configurations opens up the marvel of what is with me all the time.  And to do it slowly opens new possibilities that have been there all along but shoved underneath the pace and necessity of living habitually.  As I do the lessons, often I feel like laughing in amazement.  How different are the sides of my body!  How can they function in remotely the same way?

Another cool thing about New York is something that many people would say is not cool:  no backyards.  The hidden benefit of this was explained to me by a mother and her middle school daughter.  One of the things she loved about having kids in New York City was the playground culture.  Because there are no backyards, kids all go to the playgrounds (and there are TONS of them), and moms are there and everyone plays with whoever else is around.  It's a big mixer and a microcosm of living in the city as an adult and sharing space with others.

It also means that I can sit on a sidewalk across a street or just go for a walk and see tons of kids playing with other kids and parents interacting with them.  After coming home today, it was still really nice outside, so I went to sit in the park for a bit.  There was a father trying to get his 2-year-old to be interested in some older kids doing bike tricks down the banister of the park steps.  I've watched these guys before and it is really cool and totally fun to see them do their tricks, but the kid was not interested at all.  Still, the father tried to entice him, "Come on let's go check it out, take my hand,"  and would take his hand and start leading him that way until the kid would break off and go in another direction.  This happened several times.  I don't know how it ended because I wasn't really trying to infringe on their space, but the opposition struck me.

It seems a life-long pursuit to work in harmony, both with oneself and with others.  New York has a lot of edges, and maybe because of that, it is easy to realize how flexible it asks us to be.  We are constantly pushed up against others and accommodating as we share our space.  But there are so many ways to move.  Another thing to love about this city.