“Being still does not mean don’t move.
It means move in peace.”
~ E’yen A. Gardner ~
A decade ago, I went to Africa, to the Kalihari desert, on a personal development adventure. As part of the trip, we briefly spent some time with a small community of the San People, the Kalihari bushmen. We were invited to come alongside the community as they worked and relaxed, and to study their way of life and our own reaction to it, taking away a model, or way of distilling and conceptualising what we had observed.
The model I developed was of Graceful Action. From watching the San track, make jewellry, and make music and dance as a community, I was aware of four energies that were present in equal balance to enable a person to act with grace.
Flexibility Strength Rhythm Harmony
What I learned was that grace is not something that comes from without, it is very much about being present, and peaceful, and allowing life to flow through you. Harmony and rhythm were very much collective for the San, there was a strong sense of connectivity and flexing to each other, a sense of joining with something larger than an individual self. Doing this, and holding yourself in a system in this way calls forward strength. A tree can not bend and bow without strength and rootedness, it is this grounding that allows for the flexibility of movement without breaking.
Being still is a quality, not an activity. Stillness can flow through movement, giving it a quality of grace and peace. I wonder, where in your life would you like to be more graceful, and how can you bring your living presence into this context?
