Dynamic Spirals

But what a spiral [wo]man’s being represents! And what a number of invertible dynamisms there are in this spiral!

Every year when the days begin to shrink and cool, Bachelard’s Poetics of Space makes its way back to the top of my reading pile. And each time I return to this book, I find myself underlining different passages. I’m surprised that I hadn’t underlined this one about the spiral before. Today, this resonates with me deeply.

The spiral is a fitting image for the process of Awareness Through Movement. You revisit some actions and questions many times. But each time, you’re in a different physical, mental, or emotional place so you find something different: a connection or a sensation you hadn’t noticed before. I hear evidence of the spiral when someone says, “Today for the first time, I….” what follows is usually a word like “felt,” “understood,” “found.”

What rituals and questions do you find yourself returning to this fall? Which practices resonate with you now?