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A few months ago I took my friend Deb to pick apples. It was her first trip to Colorado, and I wanted to make sure I left her with memories she wouldn’t soon forget. I had no idea how much the experience would impact me, too.
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Before last week, I hadn’t seen my friend Liz in at least five months. It was summertime, and after weeks of persistent emails and calling, I’d finally convinced her to meet me for tea. I missed seeing my friend and wanted more time with her, but I knew I was lucky to see her at all back then. In the aftermath of a nasty divorce, she’d tightened her circle of friends and all but shut down her social calendar. The heaviness in her voice and her listless demeanor were explanation enough.
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A few weeks ago, I attended a qigong (CHEE-gong) training intensive in Utah. It’s an ancient Eastern practice of harmonizing the body’s energy for overall health and wellness. Dozens of us came from across the country to train for three days in a crowded room with Teacher Li. As he called the movements, we went quietly to work, undulating in silent waves through the room. We’d internalized the rhythm; we knew the meaning behind the flow; we were one. But whenever I paid too much attention to my form, and to ‘getting it right,’ I fell out of synch with the group and either went left when they went right, or I knocked into the person next to me with a wayward limb. Despite my attempts to ‘flow like water’ and ‘be light like smoke’ I had moments of going rigid, and it frustrated me.
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