Listening or dancing?
Swimming or floating?
Walking or standing still?
Pissed off or laughing?
Opposites give each other meaning.
The listener’s ear hairs swing to the beat.
And the dancer moves to the sound.
Going through life floating down the stream.
Or swimming along with events.
My Mum used to teach swimming lessons.
And the first thing she’d teach to young kids was how to float.
You can’t swim without floating.
So the floater swims and the swimmer floats.
The best entertainers make some laugh while pissing others off.
I love those kinds of people.
Like the book reviews with an average of 3-stars.
Split down the middle.
Advice says to be present while thinking about the future.
But past, present, future all happen now.
Reflecting on the past happens now.
Thinking about the future happens now.
Living in the future happens in a future version of now.
So you can’t ever really escape the present.
Even while moving, from one point of view, you’re still.
The dancer uses movement to become still.
While the listener uses sound to silence the surrounds.
Though none of this happens through trying.
Like the feeling of going in and out of concentration.
It’s easier to notice coming out than it is going in.
The same with waking up.
Easier to remember waking up than falling asleep.
An untrained dancer stops dancing if they notice someone else watching them.
An untrained listener stops listening if they notice something else talking to them.
I’m about to go for a walk.
Walking feels like dancing when you get into it.
Tapping the pavement with your feet.
Skipping along the grass.
I walk and I dance and I listen to the sounds too.
Birds singing, grass folding underfoot, bicycles riding past, waves hitting the wall.
Saying good morning to walkers going past, hearing them say it back.
Waving to the guy who wears the hat.
I move my arms like I’m swimming.
Floating on air.
Like a bird caught in an upstream.
Having such a good time pisses some off.
But it makes me laugh.