Sometimes I move, sometimes I am the mover

Yesterday I walked down a busy street and I didn’t walk into anyone. Sometimes I moved, sometimes I was the mover.

My walk was an unthinkable dance of weaving, turning course, striding, all at the right moments.

It could not be planned and it cannot be replicated. But it always worked out.

If I stopped walking upon recognising a busy street up ahead I would go nowhere.

If I stood still, and tried to plan my route through the throng of moving people I wouldn’t be able to. There are too many people, too many possible speeds and directions for them to go in, too many buildings along the side of the street to emerge from. It is completely unpredictable.

Yet I must be an expert on walking up busy streets — I never walk into anyone.

One of the tricks to life is to recognise when we’re on the street. When all the knowledge we think we have cannot be spoken; can only be used in motion.

Sometimes we move, sometimes we are the mover.

One of the tricks to life is to recognise when it is time to stop grasping at strategies and planning and containing what we cannot know. Instead to surprise ourselves discovering that we are already experts in getting to somewhere good.