Be Still

I just took the kids to a men's gymnastics meet at Stanford. M is off in AZ, visiting his stepmother and, I thought, why not do something different? I'll take them to see something amazing. A couple of friends from work and one from aikido were there too.

Mind you, I had never seen gymnastics live before. Every four years via the Olympics was it for me. It was a little overwhelming to see three events going on at once. If you're like me, you're used to seeing one event, one person at a time. Tonight, I had a hard time deciding which one to watch. The floor exercise looks pretty interesting. Wait! There are those ultra-strong guys on the rings. And more on the pommel horse. Pick one!

It was loud, with teammates cheering each other on, the audience clapping for one routine while another was still going on. Add to that the fact that the Burnham Pavilion is set up so that the audience is literally a stone's throw away from the competitors and you've got a pretty intense atmosphere. We found ourselves wondering: "How do they concentrate amidst all this noise?" The answer came from my aikido friend, J, who used to compete in gymnastics when he was in high school and college. "You just block it all out."

Driving home, I thought about what he said. Sometimes I find myself bombarded from all sides by requests. At work, at home. I can't even seem to hear myself think. I need to be like those gymnasts, just block all the noise out, focus, and do the best that I can. Chaos and all, whether at a gym meet, at home, or at work, you can be still and think and move forward. It just takes practice.