Contemplation and finding ghosts

Today was an interesting day.

This morning's 8am service (which we finally made! Yay!) was an oasis of peace, focused liturgy, and a wonderfully challenging sermon on the necessity for being open to change and challenge, and finding the flexibility to allow that to happen even if it isn't that comfortable. It was a real affirmation for me that I am on the right path in seeking Sophia, because it isn't comfortable. It feels awkward, difficult, strange, but at the same time, it is a large spacious place that I am invited into. I know it's right for me to be open to her and to follow her, but I also know it's awkward for other people sometimes...

From that, we went straight to the range. One of the things I'm loving about archery is that it is not something you can do while thinking about other things. It requires total focus, total presence to the body, the bow, and the arrow. It is very contemplative in some ways. I was shooting recurve again today, which I haven't done for a couple of weeks, and it felt very different. I was just beginning to get the feel of a compound, and switching back was a bit of a challenge, but a good challenge. I was focusing on body form: on how my body moves and stabilises and balances through and after the draw. It felt good, but what I was truly surprised by was that I didn't feel at all sore after it, and the recurve was really easy to draw after the compound I've been using.

And this afternoon, I flew down to Wellington: I am delivering a course here over the next couple of days (standing in for a colleague who is sick). It feels a little odd to be back here - I am staying in Plimmerton to be closer to the venue, so not back in the Hutt, but it was strange driving through Wellington from the airport. There are new roads and even a new tunnel that I didn't recognise - and we've only been gone not quite three years. So here I am: in a motel room in Plimmerton, hearing fireworks going off directly across the road, and thinking how odd it is to be back, to be here but not here, to see these places I grew up in, but not belong. It feels like a ghost of my former life in some ways.

I hope they finish up with those fireworks soon: I think I need to go to bed.Com I need to remember to account for traffic here....!