The 8th Nerve

They weren’t kidding about the wild, crazy cucumbers and why you shouldn’t allow them to flourish in your garden.

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Aug 23rd 2005I Peeved When

Suddenly it is here, one of my favorite times of the year. Here and there in small gatherings on certain trees, leaves are turning. Yesterday, when I walked outside to go play tennis, I felt it in the air. A definite twinge that means fall is coming. Summer is ending, long sleeved shirts and jeans and the smell of woodsmoke is nearly here. Cozy cozy! It is also suddenly darker nearly an hour earlier. We hit the tennis ball until we couldn’t see it anymore.

I felt so relaxed, and was so enjoying just hitting the ball around, that it was like I had never stopped playing tennis regularly. Everything in my game was working effortlessly. There is a distinct feel to it, to being in the groove and to having let go. I am frustrated that I am so easily affected otherwise- by competition, nerves, insecurity, whoever I might be playing. There were times in my life where I felt so affected that it was as if I had never played before, so plagued I was by acute self-consciousness.

But those times when it falls away, when you have let go mentally, the body takes over. The body pulls out shots that I couldn’t have placed any better if I consciously planned it, it knows how to catch the angles and the lines with pinpoint accuracy and it loves to do it most when I am unconcerned, purely in my body and not in my mind. Damn, my body knows how to play tennis.

If only I could take out my mind and put it in a jar everytime I go to play.

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Aug 23rd 2005Tennis