El Blog de Naraluna

Movement has been the word in my mind these days, it may have to do with the fact that I have just read Muriel Barbery’s book The Elegance of the Hedgehog in which one of the main characters writes about movement. It’s a really good book and I enjoyed reading it because it made me laugh, it made me think too. I did enjoy some of the philosophical ideas mentioned there… but anyway, I’m not writing a review about this book. I’m just thinking about movement and learning. Everything around us, and even ourselves, keep moving all the time. It’s just impossible to stay still.  We just can’t, and we shouldn’t. Even when our body is not moving, our mind moves. Ideas never stay still and since I’m quite hyperactive, I have keep moving in order to feel fine.

It all started two days ago, when my little nephew (almost one and a half year old) was totally focused on placing the bottle’s cap in its place, that is, on top of the bottle. Such a simple thing for us, was a challenge for him. He tried and when he achieved this goal, he smiled widely. He felt proud of himself and smiled. He did it again three more times feeling excited and confident. He had achieved something big. Just a simple movement, and everything changed for him. Of course, for him it was not so simple. It was big. Because he realized how something works and he was able to make it work. Yes, that’s how we learn. We figure something out and then work hard (or sometimes not so hard) to achieve it… and when we do it, we feel strong and confident and we keep on moving, in order to discover and achieve many more things. I was delighted to watch him and rediscover the world through his eyes. All those movements we forget or ignore, are so important for him! I wish adults didn’t forget so many things when we grow up. We are so caught up in our daily movements that we forget how to be surprised, how to enjoy the simple things, the small details. That’s why I love to “rediscover” the world through children’s eyes and let the child in me wake up and smile.  That’s what I loved about being a teacher. It kept alive the child in me and I was able to be surprised by all the things that are usually “common” for us, adults.  And even now, I do my best to keep the child in me moving restlessly, I let her surprise me and make me laugh.  I guess this is one of the movements I love the most: the movement that leads us to discover things and that lets us treasure and laugh about the simplest things, like babies and children do. And it is one of the hardest to find in adults!

So movement… I just couldn’t let this idea go and yesterday I found a different movement: the one that is not physical but emotional. The one that causes you to cry just seconds after you were laughing just because you saw or heard something that took you back to a faraway time. The movement which brings the past back and mixes it with the present. This happened to me yesterday when I was taking my beloved stepdaughter (whom I love as my daughter) to the hospital to her chemo. We were in the car and I let her play her ipod and we both listened to her music. By the way, she loves Glee so nowadays I’m more than familiar with Glee, the tv series and the music. So we were listening to different Glee songs and she played this song that she knows  I love (she was singing it the other day and I told her I how much I like it). It is the song “Hello” by Lionel Richie now sang by Glee. Even though I don’t like Glee (be sure of that) and I only watch the TV series when she asks me to watch it with her, I did enjoy this song. So, I started singing (I still know this song by heart even though I hadn’t heard it in years). All of a sudden, without warning, the tears started flowing:  I was the 16 year old teenager who sang the song really hoping to find love, hoping to hear someone to answer to this question : “Hello, is it me you’re looking for?”.  But since I was such a shy very invisible 16 year old teenager, I never got that answer on those days… “Tell me how to win you’re heart, for I haven’t got a clue, but let me start by saying… I love you”… Well, it got worse for a moment, because the teenager in me woke up and her loneliness got all over me. For a very brief moment I was her again.  I must say that during my teenage years I sang that song and dreamt that someone would answer my question and told me..”Yes… it is you I’m looking for”. But for many reasons that never happened to me on those hard teenage years. So there were tears on my face, a lump in my throat and I kept singing the song. Then, just a few seconds later, the big movement came. The great moment in which the past mixes with the present, and the teenager communicates with the adult and notices that things have changed, that she’s not lonely anymore. Therefore the adult continues singing the song while the teenager fades away slowly and I, the 34 year old adult, know that someone has already answered my question. Yes, there is someone who told me “it is you I’m looking for” and just simply loved and still loves me because I am me. “Tell me how to win your heart, for I haven’t got a clue…but let me start by saying I love you”… I sing this happily now because he knew how to win my heart and loved me then and even more now. Of course, I’m talking about my husband since I’m a happily married crazy woman. By the end of the song my heart is full and tears have almost completely faded. I smile and tell my girl how crazy I am. She smiles and we continue listening to more Glee songs until we arrive at the hospital…

And we keep moving, time moves, everything moves. Nothing ever remains the same and each movement changes us for the best of for the worst.

So let’s keep moving and enjoy what life has in store for us.

That’s all for today I guess.

~ por Naraluna en junio 17, 2011.

Publicado en feelings, life
Etiquetas: Emotional movement, Everything moves, Movement, Muriel Barbery and the Elegance of the Hedgehog, Nothing remains the same, Physical movement