The other day, I was introduced to a movement from the tai chi family called “push hands”. This is a movement done with a partner to work on balance and energy placement. This calls for constant contact while shifting positions, ever attentive to the synergetic movement of energy. One style of teaching this movement includes the discipline of thanking the partner when you are thrown off balance by her or him. Instead of pushing back, or steeling one’s defenses, you say “thank you” while adjusting your position to a better balance and wiser center. Your “opponent” teaches you whether you are well balanced. It is a gift to be shown where you are off-balance and how to be more open to what may come your way.
Let’s shift this logic to justice work and the common shame/blame spiral that so often gets us stuck in a place of alienation, fear and resentment. What if, when someone lifts up a reality we did not see, which helps us adjust to a deeper harmony, we say “thank you” and endeavor to realign the center of our assumptions into a wider field of understanding and, so, living.
This “thank you” does two things. It articulates faith in a learning curve, a gesture of knowing that harmony is possible. It also reminds all involved that the point is to be balanced rather than to gain an “upper hand”.
We are all in this together. May we find that center, and shift our weight accordingly.
