Going with the flow...

So... one of the cool gifts I received for my birthday was a stunning watercolor of a lion from my friend Beth. (As soon as I can figure out how to get a good shot of it, I'll post it... you need to see it). Being a Leo, it gave me no end of pleasure to just stare at it. Eventually I noticed that the lion's mane had blues and greens in it along with the golds and browns. When i brought it up to her, she said that was for the water in me.

I hate it when people notice things about me that I never figured out for myself.  (Lindsey did a similar thing when she wrote about superheroes on her blog recently). But it's true. A long time ago, I think I made an unconscious choice not to beat my head on things that get in my way. I use them, or I push off them, or I ignore them and find another way to get where i want to go.

Bruce Lee used to say "Be Like Water".  It wears things down. It flows around them. It finds the path of least resistance. Or it keeps building up until the thing which tries to contain it is overwhelmed. I'm conscious of it in my Martial Arts. My friend and teacher Gitai says "Fighting Greg Delaney on the ground is like trying to make love to an octopus". I think it's a complement. He means that I just keep moving around my opponent, using whatever point of my body is in contact with them as my "ground".  So I'm constantly letting go and finding a different place to be. Eventually, my opponent will get tired and I will pin them.

Here's a pretty cool video that will give you a taste of what that's like from someone who's been doing it a lot longer than I have! (Thanks, Barb!)

The above pin, "Lion in Water" is available here.