Athletes call it the zone. It’s when you can do no wrong, when the instrument you are playing becomes an extension of yourself and you become one with the song.

Yoga aims for it, as does meditation. It’s Zen. The negation of thought.

A runner and the road, a cyclist and the bike, a painter with rice paper, brush and ink. A mother and newborn completely attuned, utterly in synch.  You sit down to tap out a post and the thing writes itself, no scratching of the head or consulting the thesaurus. It’s when I throw four tubs of stale meat into the bucket of my truck and they land precisely where I wanted them to. I’ll leave you with that one, because I think you get the picture.

“Thought is the distance between the desire to act and the act itself,” wrote Henri Bergson in ‘Creative Evolution.’ I’ve probably been carrying that one around in my bean for twenty years, and though the book is up on the shelf I refuse to check it for veracity.

Once again: “Thought is the distance between the desire to act and the act itself.”

But we live in an age rife with thought. A work of art is deemed a success if it is ‘thought provoking.’ There are a great many unfortunate souls paralyzed with thought. For them the distance between the desire to act and the deed has become too great.

And so we are back to yesterday’s post, the road back to the self. Back to integrated, meaningful action.

Groups of individuals, sports teams for example, can achieve that elusive zone as well. When they do championships can result. Sometimes it is a fortuitous event, a collection of individuals unconsciously discover their optimal, organic relationship to one another. Though more often it is the result of good leadership, people naturally falling in line behind a powerfully compelling figure.

And just as individuals can slide, often imperceptibly, out of the zone, so can groups. Cohesion is lost. Communication breaks down. Much questioning ensues, much thought is engendered. Circumstances change, perhaps the environment, both natural and human-made, is altered necessitating a new balance, a new zone.

One more question before I put this post to rest. What if, in traveling the road towards self, in aligning your Self with the Life passing through you, you inadvertently find yourself out of synch with your community? What if the society you owe allegiance to is itself out of its zone?

Good night, dear reader. Godspeed on whatever journey you have undertaken. Perhaps we’ll meet in a New Community, …one that recognizes above all that Life is ALL there is.