Poise and Presence

Meditation, so I’ve heard, is best accomplished

if you entertain a certain strict posture.

Frankly, I prefer just to lounge under a tree…

So I just lie like that, while distance and time

reveal their true attitudes; they never

heard of me, and never will, or ever need to.

On Meditating, Sort Of, from Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver, 2017.

A student mentioned how her experience of time altered during an Alexander Technique class. Busy and stressed students live entire days, weeks, and months scheduled to the hour. Vigilance is required.

Which is what I love about an Alexander Technique lesson, a paddle in the kayak, working a jigsaw puzzle, walking the pine woods, a sit on the meditation chair. My relationship to, and interaction with, time changes. And that’s a refreshment.