The London Olympics have finished, but individual stories continue. Some athletes walked away with medals, the pride and talk of their countries. A few landed lucrative endorsements, which we will see in TV ads, billboards, clothing endorsements and for Gabby Douglas, her picture on a cereal box. Most finished with just having had the opportunity to compete in the big games, with the memory of being an Olympic athlete. Many need to figure out how to pay their bills, need to figure out if they can financially make it to train for the next four years in hopes of making it to Rio.
A friend of mine said last week that he was going to be happy getting his evenings back. He was glued to the TV every night of the games, and although enjoying it immensely, he wanted to focus on other things.
We’re at that time of year when there’s not much on TV, vacations are ending, children are back or getting ready to go back to school. It’s definitely noticeable that the sun is rising later in the morning and setting earlier in the evening. Although change of seasons is in the air, these last two weeks in August just seem to dangle out there. It’s an interlude. An in-between time. A time not to miss.
In Tai Chi class, I often ask students to stop and reflect on a tree. We want to be rooted, strong and upright like a tree. In addition, we want to look at the spaces in-between the leaves. Yes, the spaces. There is a lot of energy in those spaces, sometimes making the leaves and branches sway in the breeze. Sometimes still. Focusing on the spaces changes our perspective. We’re looking at the spaces where up until now we might have thought there was nothing there. Actually, we probably haven’t thought about it at all.
What a good thing to do sometime in these last two weeks of August. Take a few seconds and look at the spaces between the leaves and branches. What do you see? What do you feel?