Owed and given.
I owe a lot updates - on my brother and mom's visit, on visiting my grandfather's ancestral village, and on meeting some of my relatives for the first time. I'm behind on a lot of things, really. I owe peer edits to colleagues, and data analysis to coworkers, and emails to friends. But they've waited this long; they will wait another night.
Rainclouds cover Beijing tonight. No thunderstorms. Just a steady, easy rainfall. I danced all evening - first the single-minded focus of basic exercises, next easing into the movement of warm-ups, and then my muscles emerging raggedly into awareness. Even four hours later I was only just beginning to find myself. I was lucky enough to meet a NY-based dancer who was visiting the Beijing studio, and we worked the choreography a bit after the group lesson. I love that first connection, relish the moment when hands meet and two people settle into frame. There's a gentleness in the motion. Each person tunes in to the other's movement, and then the music sweeps in. There are a thousand things missing too, but they are the things that come with time (and for me, being a better dancer), and much can't be helped yet. And so for now, it is only this: foxtrot, gentle rain, and possibility. I think: this is happiness.
Rainclouds cover Beijing tonight. No thunderstorms. Just a steady, easy rainfall. I danced all evening - first the single-minded focus of basic exercises, next easing into the movement of warm-ups, and then my muscles emerging raggedly into awareness. Even four hours later I was only just beginning to find myself. I was lucky enough to meet a NY-based dancer who was visiting the Beijing studio, and we worked the choreography a bit after the group lesson. I love that first connection, relish the moment when hands meet and two people settle into frame. There's a gentleness in the motion. Each person tunes in to the other's movement, and then the music sweeps in. There are a thousand things missing too, but they are the things that come with time (and for me, being a better dancer), and much can't be helped yet. And so for now, it is only this: foxtrot, gentle rain, and possibility. I think: this is happiness.