Putting Space at the center helps me to focus awareness on how self and world are indistinguishably intertwined. Putting Time at the center and seeing how the dynamic flow of life is greater than my self-centered concerns feels very pertinent right now. Recent events allow me to feel grateful that I am able to do this to some extent, but a question arises. Briefly: we applied to a boarding school for our 16 year old son, due to increasing patterns of social isolation and were delighted that he wanted to go after we all visited the school. After the admissions process dragged on for weeks, my wife eventually realized that the school was concerned about how withdrawn he seemed. This process caused my wife an agony of anxiety, which I was spared because I could view it all as a “dynamic process” that the admissions people at the school had to go through. However, I think my wife–in her anxiety–was more in tune with Time’s energy and she recognized, in time for us to write some ardent e-mails and arrange a second visit to the school, that they were not sure they could accept him. Now that he has been accepted for this fall, a question arises: How does my comfort with a larger dynamic of time relate to the importance of being awake and responsive to the need to act in the moment? In retrospect, I think it is very possible that the school would have turned our son down on the basis of their first impression, and that it might have then been too late to change their minds. I also wonder whether I needed my wife’s anxiety to bring their ambivalence to the surface in order to respond to it. Part three of this exercise, putting Knowledge at the center, is helping me interact more with my son. In my hope to be able to understand him better and interact with him more, it feels crucial that I learn to recognize that his positions are as important as my own. I can already feel the benefit of this approach.
    I hope the retreat is nourishing for all of you who attend — Michael
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