RESPONS(E)-ABILITY

​RESPONS(E)-ABILITY. The Ability to Respond. Not the obligation nor the chore nor proof that I belong, nor the illusion that I need to do anything in particular to have the right to be alive, but the ABILITY, because I animate a physical body (which is an extension of "Me") which is WIRED to respond, to RESPOND. To be a part of a conversation, in every moment of every day. What am I saying by how I inhabit this incredible opportunity that seems to have a continuance to it within the lovely container of space and time? Knowing there is no right or wrong way to live my life, beyond judgement or shame or comparison, beyond what "everyone else is doing" or "nobody is doing," beyond "doing" in any particular way, HOW AM I RESPONDING to the WAVE of LIFE of which my separate self is a particle? One moment inspiring the wave with my unique voice, the next moment dissolving into the wave and losing that sound as it takes on the hue of the whole, crystallizing, dissolving, crystallizing, dissolving. I listen, I respond. I listen again, I respond again. Until the listening and the responding become almost simultaneous. The future emerges from the present. This is what's happening now, and now, and now. I surrender to the WAVE and yet my RESPONSE to each moment determines the way I surf, I swim, I dance, I glide, I fly, I slither, I sink, I swirl, I stay a moment, I slide, I skate, I figure-8. I bump up against him, then her, then them. I steer my ship toward that one, so we can glide along together for a while, learning tricks about how to ride the waves that only work with two, or three, or five, or twenty. I let go again, I lose myself in cascades that tumble over steep ravines, or in still pools where i stretch so wide i feel i could go on forever. I am powerless in the best of ways, and powerful beyond measure. RESPONSE-ABLE in the way I am made.