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abundance and injury

this has been an abundant few days.

the action and huge numbers of the weekend at powershift/capitol climate action was invigorating. i got to kick it with my DC sister who knows exactly how to get me fully relaxed. then yesterday was a day soaking up the gorgeous genius of my nephew, and getting to see my NY sister facilitate her consensus course for the first time ever – she’s a vision, a force!

then today: i got to meet with two women who give me deep faith that there are people in the funding community who care more about movement building, evolution and transformation than about funding trends, competitive directing and bullshit. then ruckus got an angel donation, anonymous and generous and delightful. then i got to see the screening of Invincible’s next music-documentary. the first one, Locusts, was a brilliant study of gentrification’s impact on Detroit. This one, People Not Places, explores the content of birthright, right of return, displacement and identity in Israel/Palestine. i also got to have my first meeting with a young woman who is doing a book and wants to profile me in it. i’ve known her since college, she’s an accomplished author, and i am both honored and nervous that she wants to include me, and generally excited about the idea of a collection of profiles of young, earnest people.

and i got my hair cut! it looks good…pictures to come. my goal is exciting, dynamic, gorgeous hair. my hairstylist, vivi, has made both of my sisters into curly hair goddesses. she made me VERY happy today, and we are now on a journey together where my only job is to not self-cut my hair between visits (harder than it sounds).

on the road, i haven’t been doing the centering exercises or swimming that had become normal practices in oakland – i’ve been traveling, staying with other people in shared spaces. no excuse, just mindbarriers. but i have severely strained my knee, and as a result my whole balance is off – i’ve run into two heating pipes, a bathtub corner, a wall, a door, the bedframe. i’ve rolled my ankle while standing still, and have to take all stairs one step at a time – a humbling experience in my fastest city. constant pain, at a good moment in life, is disconcerting. it shows that the balance aspect of life is just as important when things are great as it is when they are challenging – both extremes can throw me literally against the surfaces of life as if powerless. today i got myself a bit more grounded, tomorrow i’ll start the day off with some jo kata and downward dog and getting to see my friends kavitha and samiha.

i love my bruised tender eggshell of a body. i love my imbalanced bumble of a body. i love my fantastic hair and broken out skin and unkempt eyebrows, i love my flesh which now has no tolerance for cold weather, and i love most of all, my knee, which is reminding me of its power and connectedness and importance in the overall process of body movement and existential joy. amen.