ease-y musing

(photo: taking it easy in the hot springs with our new wonderful friends)

Now that we're down to ten weeks left in this glorious country, I'm trying to sort out what we've learned in a concrete way so that when I'm home, I'll be able to retain a bit of it. Chinese, that's one thing we've learned - some at least, enough that we're excited about a trip to China in July. But bigger things - personal things. It feels as if there's been a great shift, but it's not quite tangible. I wrote about money in the fall, and that certainly is one huge part.

This morning, though, biking back from McKinley's school, I had a modest epiphany - 3.6 on the Richter scale. It's supposed to be easy.
That's it. Do what needs to be done with ease.

For years I've been battling with myself about exercise - need to go to the club, need to get friends together to do yoga, and if they don't come, I don't yog; really should walk more, swim, run, bike... but given the choice, working is always more enticing. Maybe if I hated my work?

Now I'm biking through the back lanes every morning before breakfast. Then every afternoon, I go watch McKinley play soccer (how good it feels to be a Taiwanese Soccer Mom!) and there, all the moms walk around the track while we watch the kids play. I've even been known to run a few laps. On the weekends, we all go play soccer, and twice a week, our family all does an hour and a half of T'ai Chi. All together, I'm not doing much yoga, but I'm getting so much more exercise than I've had in years. And it's easy.

That's what the epiphany was, biking this morning. It takes so much energy to prod this body from stasis to movement. If it requires thought, it's hard. Exercise, like eating, like taking a bath, like reading a good book, like doing housework, like going to work - all these things are supposed to be easy. Not necessarily physically or intellectually easy, but they do not require my busy little mind to go into overload about whether or not it should or shouldn't happen today... how about tomorrow? It just happens. Easy.

So can I take this new thoughtless habit home? I hope so. I hope it's easy. .^_^. Alison