Today after church I met Liz at the boathouse and we took single shells out for the first time in a looooooong time. I decided to concentrate on my hands - my grip on the oars - and to try and pay attention what happens when I loosen my hands. I preached sort of a heavy sermon today so perhaps my seeking lightness was my own antidote to the words I heard and said...
Amazingly, I came to understand on our journey up to Bon Air and back that a tight grip causes my arms to tighten,my shoulders to rise up to my ears and my core to be disengaged...I am so focused on the death grip that everything else either gets tight or gets loose in very unhelpful ways. In the same way, when I loosened up my hands, all other parts were able to engage in appropriate ways and produce a much better stroke. As it turned out, Liz was working on her own "one thing" and we both came off the water agreeing that the single is a great teacher.
How much I can learn from this short experience, of letting up my grip...as my friend Tracy noted, it works especially well when dealing with people. Which is true and which is almost as hard to be aware of as gripping those blades with an iron fist...practice, practice, practice!
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