Years ago, I wrote a line of dialogue: "Like driving home at 3AM and making all the lights." It's stayed with me I think because it gets to something we all know, those times of perfect synchronicity when all systems are go, it's smooth sailing, when without even thinking about it, everything works.
Bill Russell, the great basketball hero, wrote a book and in it he talked about how in some games, not very often and not for very long, it's was if the players were lifted up into a new dimension, all of them in sync playing without thinking. Russell said it stopped mattering who won and lost. The opposition stopped being the opposition; all the players on the court were part of a completely organic whole. It was deep joy in the game. "In the zone" is too small a phrase for it. What I prefer is transcendence.
You can't decree these moments, but you can do what you can to prepare the way. Russell and the others worked very hard and very long to be the best they could be, and they got so good, they were ready for those moments of joy. I want to do whatever I can to smooth my own path, to practice being open and willing, to nourish the connection to my spirit and heart, so that I create at least the possibility of such golden times.
(By the way, I've often thought that if I could take only one thing with me to a desert isle it would be Bill Russell's laugh. Talk about joy. If you haven't heard it, you should try to track it down.),
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