So last Thursday we were on the sneak snack picnic preview call in honor of the upcoming September Shiva Nata training.

Note! You can still sign up for recording and Chattery transcript. And you can still join the training. Early registration price good through the 15th.

And Andy (who is @acdolph on Twitter) asked a very useful question.

I had been saying something about how, as a shivanaut, you can apply Shiva Nata principles to everything you do. To anything you’re working on.

Andy, very sensibly, asked what those principles were.

And I was all, Huh?

Oh, right!

That’s because I suffer from eternal Too Much Information syndrome.

Being way too close to this stuff, it hadn’t occurred to me that many of you might not be familiar with the basic Shiva Nata principles.

But of course you wouldn’t (though you might already feel them or have a sense of them) because, well, why would you? It isn’t really something I’ve talked about explicitly here.

Silly me! So then — after I stopped stuttering — I talked about some of those principles and how they work. And it might be useful to talk about them here too.

Anyway, here are some of the basic Dance of Shiva principles (and accompanying superpowers). In no particular order.

1. ADAPT.

Things are constantly in flux.

Everything is moving. Go with it.

In Shiva Nata, we’re invariably going to be lost most of the time. When we’re not messing up, it’s not working.

So the rules are constantly changing. The formulae get increasingly complex. Each sequence takes apart what you’ve just learned. Each algorithm is crazier than the last.

And we just deal with it. We adapt. And we laugh at how ridiculously terrible we are at adapting.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Agility, Flexibility and Balance. Also the superpower of “Oh, things are like this now? Okay!”

2. Find the openings.

There is always an opening.

Always a gap.

Patterns are made of elements and the gaps between them. Use the gaps.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Curiosity, Play, Courage, Delight

3. It’s all patterns.

Pattern recognition is what we do.

Everything is a pattern and any pattern can be changed.

Shiva Nata helps you identify and recognize what the patterns are, without thinking that they’re good or bad (because that’s a pattern too).

It shows you what’s going on for you in any given moment.

Eventually you just start to notice patterns everywhere. And to play with them.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Awareness, Clarity, Flow

4. Experiment.

We approach things with a methodical scientific mindset of exploration and discovery.

You don’t just make connections and cross the midline to challenge the brain.

You make every possible connection between X number of points. You cross hemispheres using sequential patterns.

And each new pattern reconfigures the elements of the old pattern.

Same thing when you work on personal patterns (mental, emotional, physical, energy, spiritual, whatever you’re working on).

You establish a hypothesis. You play with one element at a time. You document the process.

Pattern-mapping and pattern-deconstructing. Testing things. Taking notes! That’s the approach.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Order, Structure, Form, Curiosity, Play, Inquisitiveness, Investigation, Potentiality.

5. Own your space.

We do a lot of work with spatial awareness in Shiva Nata, both physically and energetically. And symbolically.

We use force fields. We build buffers. We work on getting to know our internal and immediately-external space.

And we work on maintaining our sense of where our space begins and ends. We learn about our right to take up space. To claim it unapologetically.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Sovereignty, Spaciousness, Containment, Safety, Support, Grounding, Stability, Trust.

6. Play!

This is related to experimentation.

We mess around with things. We are big believers in Try Stuff.

We use words, colors, numbers, directions, anything we can think of.

We approach the practice with joy and with glee when we can.

And with an experimental “I wonder what this will be like” when we can’t.

There’s a reason my center is called The Playground. We play there.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Creativity, Experimentation, Joy, Delight, Wonder, Healing.

7. Release attachment.

This is related to adaptation.

Don’t get married to any particular pattern. It’s temporary.

When you practice Shiva Nata, it will feel so good whenever you have the sense that you’re “getting it right”. But getting it wrong is where the magic is.

So we have to let go of things. Lovingly. With compassion.

It’s hard stuff. It’s the advanced practice. And Shiva Nata teaches us how to do this.

Also, you gotta be okay with paradox. Everything in Shiva Nata has a corollary, an exception, a caveat. Baby, that’s how it is.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Trust, Release, Courage, Strength, Love.

8. There is no learning without challenge.

This is an Andrey-ism and it is your reminder to always make it harder!

Seriously. Always make it harder.

But! We challenge patterns with love.

We don’t crush our patterns. We play with them. And we don’t challenge ourselves out of meanness, we challenge with compassion.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Grace, Power, Sovereignty, Harmony.

9. Do it wrong!

Flail disastrously! Mess up. Be awful at this. That’s the point.

Plus, it’s good for you.

Get it wrong. Get it wronger! Screw it up even more.

Shiva Nata is a giant permission slip (and a tiny one on a popsicle stick) to be terrible at something. And for that to be really, truly okay. Not just okay, but desirable.

There is no such thing as being good at this. No one ever has been and no one ever will be.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Permission, Flow, Forgiveness, .

10. Choose Freedom.

Andrey says that the purpose of Shiva Nata is the liberation of your consciousness. Big words. And scary sometimes.

But yes, stick with the practice and you will feel it. At first in glimpses and hidden moments. And then more regularly. Freedom.

Shiva Nata teaches you how to be free (while still taking responsibility for your choices and your actions).

Freedom from having to do things the way you’ve always done them. Freedom to rewrite the patterns.

RELATED SUPERPOWERS: Congruence, Sovereignty, Permission, Possibility. And some other things that don’t really have words.

Ach, principles…

Shiva Nata is endless. Both infinite and infinitely complex. So these are by now means all of them. Luckily, they’re all connected anyway.

If none of this makes sense to you, no worries. Keep practicing. Keep flailing!

If this stuff that I’m talking about here is really appealing to you, take it to the practice. Ask to be shown more about the principle that speaks to you.

And if you’re coming to the September Training — aka the Shivanautical Academy of Hilarity and Play — you’ll leave with a much deeper sense of how to use these principles and apply them to real life.

Hope this was helpful! Was it?

xox
Havi

p.s. Tiny popsicle stick reminder! Twelve days left in the the September Training early registration period.

This is me wearing a pink wig and laughing my head off in a video segment (12:41) from a casual Shiva Nata class I taught in early May.

The students came up with silly words and we linked them with the arm positions…

The horizontals: shindig, popover, light, Selma
The verticals: pink, power, glitter, puffball

Here we’re doing Level 2 transquarters, which I call FLIP-ITS.

A Flip-It is when you leap-frog one position. So instead of going from one to two to three to four, you jump from one directly to three. Or from two directly to four. Flip it!

Additional notes:

Enjoy!

The Shivanauts are having a picnic!

Maybe you’re planning to come to the amazing upcoming Shiva Nata training. Or maybe you can’t make it.

But either way you are very welcome to join us for a special, fun, snack-centric Shivanautical group call.

The call is on June 30 at noon Pacific. No cost.

You can listen in quietly (secret picnic mouse!) or bring questions as you like. We’ll also have a private Chattery, which is like a chat room but way more fun.

We’ll be talking about:

• how to make your Shiva Nata practice more fun, playful, energized and sparkly.

• why anyone gets to teach this (and the sneaky way to approach teaching).
• setting yourself up to get the biggest and best insights and results from flailing.

It’s like a sneak preview. Except it’s a SNACK sneak preview.

Anyway, if you’re thinking about coming to the Shivanautical training of hilarity and play, this will reignite your practice and answer all sorts of useful questions.

And if you’re not thinking about coming to the training, this will a fun time to hang out with Shivanauts, ask questions, goof off and get practice and teaching tips.

Either way, you are welcome and it would be a delight to have you!

Yay! And let me know here if there’s stuff you’d like us to cover…

We won’t put you on a newsletter list or anything like that. You’ll want to bring your own snacks because this is happening over the phone! And we’ll send you a recording after the call takes place. That’s all!

Today’s post is from Rose, who teaches in the UK (Brighton! Whoo!). Yay, Rose!.

Shiva Nata Teaching – An Insight of Flight

I began “Dancing Shiva” as I call it because I don’t like freestyle movement, nor having to do something a certain way. I loved the idea that I could focus on numbers, spatial cues, colours, words, as well as how I felt.

I felt safe in the knowledge that there was a structure that still allowed freedom. I could learn the positions, and then apply them in endless streams of patterns. I could use them in flow, or staccato like a robot.

These days, I mix the moves in with yoga and belly-dance moves, often to the sound of pop and rock music.

The Revelation

It’s a Tuesday afternoon. I head online to check the forums. Someone’s added me as a friend and I look at the message.

“I would LOVE to learn first level Shiva Nata.. and I can travel to Brighton if necessary.”

Sit back. Inhale. Confusion.  I haven’t mentioned on my profile that I even practise Shiva Nata, let alone that I could teach it. Yet…I’ve been practising over a year, I’m about half way through level 2.

Well, yes, of course I could teach level 1.  I guess?

* bing *

I’ve taught meditation. I have taught one session of Shiva Nata (the week only one person showed up for meditation). I learnt the science behind it during my degree. I feel confident explaining it to others.  I already have a blog post I can direct people too. I trust the practise.

I. Could. Do. This.

Teaching

Look at any biography I’ve ever written and you’ll find a hidden dream, slipped between the lines:

I want to teach.

Not historical battles in a classroom with loud kids who don’t want to be there… but adults. And not just night school classes; but something they can’t get elsewhere. I want to be unique and to provide something that will enhance every moment of their life; help them reach that potential.

I sent back a friendly “sure, it’d be amazing to meet another Shivanaut” response and forgot about it.

A few hours later I’m listening to the Dust off the DVD teleclass and I begin doodling the horizontal positions – just stick arms without a head or body; moving in robotic shifts.

Half-way through, I look down and see that I’ve written out the numbers 11 22 33 44 and suddenly started a column of “what’s hard, what’s easy, what I love about it” and suddenly…

* bing *

I want to give people wings, and exercises to strengthen those muscles.

I see a butterfly, taking off from a leaf.  This image was the inspiration for my blog, the point of light in my discovery of reaching potential… and I see the wing movements… It’s shiva nata.

The wing moves up and out.. H1 H1  then goes down.. to V4 V4 then in to H2 H2 as the wings touch their belly before they flow forwards; to V3 V3 then out to H1 H1 again…

Watch a butterfly in slow motion (or like me, imagine you can see a butterfly taking off in slow motion).   

Flying is Dance of Shiva.

I want to teach people to fly.

I could teach Shiva Nata.

As I scribbled down things I’d make sure I told the beginners, I run out of room on my page, and switch to making a worksheet on my laptop. An hour later, I’ve a lesson plan with timings for each section, diagrams of the four horizontal positions and a list of materials I’d need to teach this in my own style.

The doubts settle in. Yet, I am resolved.

I’ve had this thought before — last year when my twitter friend began teaching her book-group; I thought about how I co-run two University societies and that if I had two people willing to learn, I’d be willing to teach. But fear stopped me.

This time, I send the woman who originally requested a lesson a message explaining that I have materials and am happy to meet up. The doubts were still creeping up on me though.

You can’t even do level 1 with legs or all of level 2 yet!

You don’t know enough!

You’ve not got an official qualification.

There’s no worksheet on how to teach this you can call upon when it all goes wrong.

I flitter over to Havi’s teacher training page and I re-read one sentence until I hear the voices quieten.

Even if all you know so far is a chunk of Level 1? That’s enough to start.

While they’re learning arms, you learn the legs. While they learn legs, you can learn Level 2.

As long as you’re one or two steps ahead of your students – and committed to practicing while you teach — you’ll be fine.”

And just to prove to myself and those monsters that I could do this; I stand up and go through the arms of Horizontal level 1. Then vertical. Then I throw in some level two transquarters and the bit of level 2 I can do. Then I tentatively move my legs.

That’s more than enough to teach horizontal arms to a beginner. Besides, I need to be able to do it wrong and show them that that’s okay.

And if they catch up with me, then we’ll teach each other.

As the voices cease, I nod emphatically.

The Decision

I could call it “Insight to Butterfly Flight” and call upon my societies, the pagan pub moot I attend and the four-five Shivanauts I know in England. I could print out worksheets, set myself-and-them the same homework to keep it mixed up and we could conquer this together.

Maybe I really do this; maybe teaching is something I can do.
Just maybe I can offer people those wings.

(If you’re anywhere near London or Brighton in the future and want to learn with another practitioner, please say hi.)

And if I can teach it; maybe you could too.

Rose is @celestialrose on Twitter.

The upcoming May Rally (Rally!) — aka the Special Silly Punk Rock Shivanauttery Rally — is probably the thing I’m most excited to teach this year, other than the Shiva Nata teacher training.

And not just the teaching part but being there and participating in it. Because I need some of this myself.

What it is:

A Rally is an event where you make obscene amounts of progress on your projects.

Even if you don’t know what those projects are yet.

This one is especially shivanautically charged. Double the epiphanies! Play!

And you can use this Rally to work on any pattern or any project you like.

But there will be insane amounts of getting things done, and massive destuckifying and big, huge understandings.

What I mean by a shivanautically-charged Rally:

We’ll be doing slightly more Shiva Nata than usual. And weird, wonderful related stuff that I don’t normally teach.

And with the clear intention that all this brain-rewiring will solve our problems for us.

Not just in a fractal flower way, but knowing that we will get the information we need to move forward on our projects.

No experience necessary.

I’m not kidding.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve done Shiva Nata a thousand times or never once.

All minds will be equally blown.

Why this Shivanauttery Rally is especially fabulous:

Because:

1) It’s extra-shivanautically focused, for people who want it to be.

So if you couldn’t care less about Shiva Nata or are kind of terrified by it, you can just do the minimum and still enjoy the sparkle-brain effect.

2) You can work on any project or any pattern you’d like to bring into your life.

3) It’s amazing prep for a teacher training.

Or you could even do it instead of the Teacher Training. Or your Rally project could be how to come up with money and a plan to do the Teacher Training.

If you like, your project could also be untangling the patterns that say you can’t teach X or that you can’t make money doing Y (whether it’s Shiva Nata or something else entirely).

Or figuring out a fabulous plan for how to combine Shiva Nata with other things that you do or could do.

4) Welcome to EPIPHANY CITY, darling. This is what it’s like in my brain. Also I will be wearing a pink wig.

So really you should probably just come for that.

5) I can’t think of any other reasons. But the people already coming are great. Also Portland is absolutely gorgeous in May. And: grilled cheese!

Who this is for:

Anyone who wants to get more done faster, but without pushing and without the whole ASS-IN-CHAIR thing. Anyone who could stand to have a better relationship with working on projects. Anyone who could use a happier brain.

If you love Shiva Nata. Or if you are shivanautically-curious.

If you could stand to have your world slightly shaken up but then put lovingly back together again.

That’s it!

A rally for working on projects, patterns and stucknesses. Expect madcap Shivanauttery and extreme moments of BING at this wild zen rumpus.

And it is soon:

May 16-19 in Portland, Oregon.

And why I’m telling you this right now:

There is ONE SPOT LEFT…

Updated! There was one spot left. And now there are two, because of a scheduling crisis that is going to be a lucky break for someone.

Maybe Selma and I will see you there. That would be so lovely. And either way, there will be lots of stories and pictures from our adventures.

xox
Havi + Selma

At the last Rally (Rally!), we were getting ready for our first Shiva Nata class.

And I asked the group — some of whom were experienced shivanauts and some of whom had never done this ever — to make up words for the eight basic positions.

I often do this when I teach.

Do you know why?

Why would I do that?

Ahahahahaha.

There is, as always, a reason and intention behind everything I do. And in this particular case, there are several reasons. That I’m not going to tell you about today.

Guesses are welcome. :)

Anyway, I let the Rallygators choose the words and here’s what they came up with.

For the horizontal positions:

Clarity, Knowing, Love, Bad-assery.

And for the vertical positions:

Floop, Poink, Kachow, Boom.

So we ended up with lots of fantastic connections.

Love Kachow! Clarity Boom!

And sentences.

Like this one, during the Level 2 transquarters:

You have to know your poink in order to be a bad-ass about the boom.

Which starting position was that?

Yup. 2:6!

Or here’s another one:

Loving the floop makes it easier to clear your kachow.

If you know what I mean…

Which starting position was that?

You tell me…

Creative play is magical.

It whirls your brain around and melts patterns.

It changes your force field and shakes up your internal snow globe.

It makes you laugh.

Sparklepoints!

Sparklepoints to anyone who figured out the last starting position I was referring to is. And to anyone who wants to guess what the theory is behind making your students come up with the words to do Shiva Nata to.

And to anyone who needs some sparklepoints, of course.

p.s. We’ll be doing lots of inventing words and other unlikely ways to bend your brain during the Shiva Nata teacher training in September, if you want to play. And at the next Rally, which starts May 16, and is all about Shiva Nata. Fun.

Very exciting news — we now have the dates for the next Shiva Nata teacher training. Yes, the dates people have been asking about since December when the last training filled.

Squeeeeeeeeee!

September 7–9, 2011

Wednesday, September 7th in the afternoon through Friday, September 9th at noon. In Portland, Oregon. At the Playground (my magical studio).

Exclamation points!

Registration doesn’t open for a few more days (April 21st), but block out the training dates on your calendar and get ready to find a way to make this happen because this is amazing. And it fills fast.

More details to be posted soon, in addition to the basic information here.

In the meantime, if you have questions that aren’t answered on the FAQ, ask away.

And if you were at a previous training with me and want to weigh in with how trippy, powerful and beautifully-life-changing it is, that’s welcome too.

And the reminder!

You don’t have to be any good at Shiva Nata. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t practiced in a year. Or at all. You don’t have to want to teach. If you have the feeling, you have the feeling.

This can help with any project, any process and anything you might ever want to teach.

So if you can find a way to get to Portland in September, rock on. I can’t wait to see you.

Just a quick note to our German readers:

Jackie Tauil has a new website in German about Shiva Nata and her classes in Berlin (and most recently in Japan):

http://shivanata-danceofshiva.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Today’s post is from the lovely Elizabeth Borchert who did Shiva Nata with us at the Destuckification Retreat in California last year, and at the January Rally in Portland.

Endless variations and possibilities is one of my most beloved shivanautical themes. Thank you! .

A little while ago I was on a brainstorming kick, and challenged myself to come up with 101 Shiva Nata variations.

I thought you might enjoy them — so here they are!

101 ways to do Shiva Nata

1. Saying numbers aloud
2. Saying the direction of movement aloud
3. As fast as you can
4. So slowly your arms hurt
5. While music is playing (so many possibilities with music)
6. In silence
7. While keeping your mind as silent as possible
8. While having a conversation with someone
9. Balancing on one foot
10. When using your leg, not letting your moving foot touch the floor
11. Jumping with each arm movement
12. Moving arms smootly through the positions
13. Staccato – stick in each position and move between them as fast as possible.
14. One arm legato and the other staccato
15. While lying on the floor
16. While lying on the floor with your abs engaged in a crunch
17. While hanging upside down (use a chair, monkey bars, inversion table, strong friend)
18. Assign the positions words, and say the words (Havi has some great ones)
19. Assign the positions notes, and sing the notes (Shiva Nata solfege)
20. Now play those notes on an instrument
21. Let your torso move – dance with it
22. Singing your favorite song and flailing to the beat
23. Focusing on beautiful form
24. With rice crispy treats on your hands
25. Hopping on one foot
26. Writing the numbers on paper
27. With eyes closed
28. Not moving, but imagining yourself moving
29. From the instructor’s perspective (right hand becomes your first hand)
30. When you’re stuck on a problem
31. When you’ve been doing some deep work and want to let it sink in – or move to another level
32. Pretending you’re someone else
33. For 30 seconds while waiting for something else
34. Under a forest canopy
35. In public
36. Saying the numbers (or words or colors or notes) and NOT moving
37. Assigning each position a color and saying the color
38. Mixing up the order of starting positions using Shiva Nata cards or Willie’s charts
39. Play with Shiva Nata cards
40. Put dots on a piece of paper, assign them positions, and point to them instead of doing the positions.
41. Move your arms, but not your legs, and imagine that you’re moving your legs. Now move your legs and imagine the arm movements
42. With waltz rhythm
43. With tango rhythm (slow, slow, quick, quick, slow)
44. With dotted rhythms (slow, quick, slow, quick)
45. With the DVD
46. With a partner standing facing you. You can mirror each other (yes, one of you takes the instructor role to break your brain), or not (aah! Not doing what I’m seeing!)
47. In front of a mirror
48. With the numbers on a piece of paper in front of you
49. Think about the transitions instead of the movements
50. In a group, all facing the same direction
51. In a group in a circle facing inward
52. In a group, taking turns
53. In a group, each starting at a different starting position
54. In a group, taking turns calling out a position and everybody goes to that position
55. While walking
56. Watching someone else and not moving yourself
57. Doing just one position, or just one spiral, or just one sequence
58. Doing only two staring positions’ worth
59. Taking up as much space as you can
60. Taking up as little space as you can
61. Breathing with a particular rhythm
62. Generate a random string of numbers, and use that as your sequence
63. While contemplating a mandala, flame, flower, or other meditation focus
64. While praying
65. Naming the positions in a foreign language
66. Assign the positions to verb forms, and conjugating verbs in a foreign language
67. Imagining that you can draw in the air as you’re moving, and seeing the patterns you make
68. Adding a stomp to your leg movements any time you come back to center
69. Teaching it to someone else
70. Teaching it to several people at a time
71. Alternating with a form of expression (writing, painting, etc.)
72. Considering maybe flailing at some point in the future
73. Consciously deciding not to do Shiva Nata today
74. Visualizing movement along the cube Andre draws in the theory section of the DVD
75. Wearing unusual footwear (whatever is unusual for you), or none at all
76. Underwater
77. Expressing an emotion of your choice with your arm movements
78. On the roof of a building
79. In a cave
80. Deciding on how much you’re going to do ahead of time and sticking with it even after you get bored or feel your brain is fried
81. When you don’t want to
82. When you’ve just gotten some exciting news
83. When you’re frustrated with how something is not working out
84. While riding a wave on a surfboard (please share a video if you do this!)
85. In a place you feel uncomfortable
86. In a place you feel safe and loved
87. Instead of the usual leg sequence, number the leg positions and do one arm and one leg
88. Slowly, carefully, one position at a time, with full focus and intention on moving your arms (and leg) to the correct position with the smoothest possible movement
89. Locate spots on the floor and assign them numbers. Using your legs, step on the numbers in sequence, like you’re playing Dance Dance Revolution
90. Posting a position on Twitter or Facebook every half hour
91. While watching children play
92. While concentrating on a particular chakra
93. Imagining energy flowing from one chakra to another along the paths suggested by the numbers, using the air around you for 8
94. With small weights (or cans of soup) in your hands
95. Imagining the air around you is thick
96. Standing on a balance board
97. A train! A train! Could you, would you, on a train?
98. Clock face Shiva Nata. Point up (12), right (3), down (6), and left (9) instead of positions 1-4. Now, if you left hand is the hour hand, and right hand is the minute hand, instead of saying the numbers you’re pointing to, say the time indicated by your arm position.
99. Sitting on a chair, use two arms and two legs
100. Watching the DVD and imagining you’re moving along with it
101. Reading about other people’s practices, or talking about your practice (okay, I’ll stop now)

Here’s the thing.

There are a bazillion different ways to do Shiva Nata, more than anybody could ever think of or list. I’m sure Havi could rattle off a whole bunch more (please, please don’t flail while operating heavy machinery).

The trick is not in how you ultimately flail (though some ways sure are a ton of fun – I can’t wait to do Shiva Nata in a group again). It’s in the willingness to be open to possibilities.

To experiment and see what a different approach has to offer. To bring awareness to the practice. And I’m sure Havi would add – the willingness to make it hard.

None of which, of course, applies just to Shiva Nata.

Today’s glowing post is from the wonderful Jenia Laszlo. Jenia was at our Shiva Nata teacher training last June and is one of my favorite people!

Yay, Jenia! And thank you!
– Havi

My intention for today’s Shiva Nata practice was clarity.

As I wrote down “clarity” in my journal, I immediately decided that it was not clear enough and added “relationship with clarity”.

The original work plan was to mess with level 3, and then I decided that it would be nice to warm up with some level 2 squares, with alternating breath patterns, going very fast.

As it turned out, the “warm-up” was plenty (something that I forget and remember over and over again). After getting as far as H4 V2 starting position, my arms very loudly asked for a break, and every other part of the body was all “yes, yes, break please, let’s lie down”.

So I did. The tingle – it was everywhere. So sore! And after a couple of moments, my mind was all “Right, clarity. Do we have clarity already?”

Immediately, there was a vision: something very white, very light, transparent yet glowing. Weightless, uplifting. Shifting. Shifting away.

And there was another vision: arms trying to catch it. Chasing it. Running after it. Spray painting it.

Spray painting?

Yes! Apparently a version of me is hunting the clarity with a paintball gun. What’s that on the horizon, is that clarity? Bam! A thick cover of paint. Now the clarity has been identified, its shape can be seen and it can be captured and securely stored.

Except that it’s not clarity anymore. It’s a mere shell of it, and it’s not clear.

The real clarity, free, puzzled and bemused, is watching from the distance. The hunter, frustrated that the getting close to the spray-painted captured creature is not giving her the qualities that she wants, lifts her gaze.

Damn! The real clarity is over there! This is the fake one! OK, let’s run after the real clarity again!

I am tapping the hunter on the shoulder. Hey! I say. This game is not really giving you what you want, is it? And it’s pretty damn infuriating, isn’t it?

The hunter frowns. I don’t think she heard my words, but she has now decided to take a break. She puts down the gun and sits down leaning against the tree trunk.

It’s nice here, in the shadow. This chase has surely been tiring. And she thinks, you know what, what I’d really want now is some rest.

She stretches out on the grass, in the protecting shadow of the tree. Yawns. Closes her eyes. In a few seconds, I can hear her relaxed breath.

And I can see something light, glowing and warm stroking her hair.

Good to see you, clarity.