Rhythm... Dustin

“The rhythm with which things progress, and the rhythm with which things deteriorate should be understood and differentiated.” –Miyamoto Musashi
 
Musashi was late 16th/early 17th century master swordsman. For a good deal of his life he was a wandering duelist serving no master a Ronin. He is best known as being the author of the Book of Five Rings (although I prefer his Dokkodo). This treatise on strategy is a usually found in the library of every martial artist and leadership expert. I offer this woefully inadequate description due to the broad spectrum of folks that have shared they are following this blog. Musashi tells us in multiple ways that there is a“…there is a rhythm in everything.” I find myself keenly aware of and at the edge of this. Rhythm.

I am progressing very well by all standards. I am walking around the neighborhood in the early mornings much as I would do before transplant. My nutrition strategy feels like it is dialed in focused on quality with a little wiggle room. My weight is back to pre-op levels… exactly this morning, eerily. My belly is still distended a bit and swollen and I noticed I have lost some sensation around the suture line. I fill scrawny but am taking the lifting restrictions seriously as a hernia would slow my physical return, greatly. My color is… I HAVE color and while I ran out of gas quickly, naps are no longer a necessity. The strict timing of my meds gave me the opportunity to anchor some other daily tasks around those times and what has emerged is a three work blocks of time a day for clients and/or writing. Rhythm.

So, my somewhat lengthy morning ritual of all those -should do- tasks has been fractured a bit creating again what may prove a nicer flow. We will see over the next weeks and months as I am taking my time adjusting to the new plan. Weekly, I have clinic and labs so those become my Off days. Conveniently, those are Mondays and Tuesdays… just like the past 20 years at Silverleaf. At least until I stabilize we are going to consider doing Bennett’s pre-K/kindergarten as a base through Oklahoma’s online K12 program. So that is congruent and convenient. Rhythm.

There is a rhythm to recovery. There is a rhythm to my acquisition of new habits. There is a rhythm to the dissolution to what no longer serves. There is an emerging rhythm in taking the necessary steps to grow my practice as dialysis is no longer a factor. There is a rhythm to my client sessions unique to whom I am across from. Rhythm.

On this last point, Rumi said “…the teacher and the taught together form the teaching;” I am finding the coach and the client together form the coaching. There is an eddy of give and take that sometimes pushes and sometimes prods but mostly allows that eventual settles into its a pace and structure that is uniquely its own. Rhythm.