Kaile Judge - Student Choosing Topic Post 3 - Flow

 F L O W

Long-distance hiking, wilderness, trees, flowers, rocks, moss, roots, ants, flow. Flowing is going, moving forward without stopping, flow. The river flows, but it is loud, ragging down a mountain, trying to get to the ocean as quickly as possible. Running around rocks and fallen trees, around bends and down waterfalls, the river runs, but does it flow? 

Flow is not water at all, rather a state of being. Flow is how you exist for a period of time. As one that has never experienced this "flow," I could not accurately say what it is, how it works, or what happens. I know that flow is steady, it is not always smooth riding, but it is always moving. Flow is an action. One does not say the water is "flowing" when sitting still; instead, one might say it is meditating or relaxing. Water that is moving, however, now that is flowing. 

Becoming the water, going over obstacles, around them, or through them, but just going. Being aware of every fish, piece of moss, smooth or jagged rock, every turn and fall. To be water, one must flow, being kind to others and going around them, but being strong in will in going over and through. Going around the tall standing trees, over the buried rocks, and through the pile of branches trying to stop its movement forward that were placed there by the wind or the pesky beavers. 

Flow is the "merging of action and awareness" (Dr. Redick), and indeed one must be in motion, but one must also be aware. Not forcing self to be aware, but meditatively being aware of every surrounding. Not knowing while you are in flow, but once the water reaches the ocean, you know everything you have seen, every mountain traversed, and fish that went dancing by. You are familiar now with that which you passed without knowing.