Thursday, May 1, 2008

11

Can we do that again? Right now I feel like a little kid who just screwed up my courage and did something I wasn't sure I could, and now that I have, I want more. What a great experience being carried was for me...

I confess I had had so many ideas about what I would think or feel as I anticipated the carry during this past week. What I found was that I just had a really great time. I felt immediately comfortable in our amble, like we'd done it yesterday and the day before and the day before that.

The thought of one person carrying another touched the same place in me that finds me getting teary whenever I'm in a group of people that is clapping for someone -- a performer, a speaker, the like. People appreciating one another, recognizing in each other something that is good, is valuable, and people tending to one another is just so pure, so sweet and so rare. In the actual experience of being carried, however, with my arms crossed over Armen's chest in a strong embrace, and my arms, neck and head rising above his, I felt that I was the one who was doing the tending, that I was the caregiver, the angel and protector. Even as he toiled under my weight, I felt that I was comforting him, loving him, supporting him. Realizing that this idea seemed a little backward did not make me feel any differently, but as the carry went on I almost forgot that he was carrying me at all. I got used to our position and our conversation, and I was more focused on learning about the person whose body was pressed to my chest than I was in tracking the nuances of my own feelings or ideas.

The position I was in, with my arms crossed around Armen's chest and my legs sticking out rather straight was strikingly similar to a cradling sculptural figure I just completed this week, and I found myself enjoying embodying the cradle's intent.

As we neared the Eastern Promenade at the end of the carry, I felt rather let down that it was over. I had become surprisingly settled into my drape over Armen's shoulders and quite engrossed in our conversation. The journey felt like such a quick one, and such a natural activity, and that little surprise is something I'll be thinking about for a while.

Thank you, Armen, for bringing me into this experience.

Catherine Fisher
Falmouth, Maine

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