first day of school – Misericordia

This has been an ‘..already?’ week.

Between the first proper week of school, the start of after-school classes, a mountain of life administration and trying to new homes for all the stuff that has crept into the house while my back was turned, I don’t have much finished work to show.

But I’m trying to ride the crest of the end of summer wave and get myself back into the swing of coherent existence. I’ve had a nice few months letting things slide, but now I think I want to live in a house where there are flat surfaces with nothing on them and corners which only collect cat fur.

I’ve girded my loins for another attempt to finish the Lovely Young Man’s Christmas jumper (which I started a fortnight before Christmas two years ago), and I have moderately high hopes for this attempt.

How are things shaping up around you? Have you turned up to anything a week before it was meant to start? Have you put something down only for it to vanish into a realm from which nothing can return? Do you have any good ways to store Lego and dinosaurs, safe from the curious fingers of a soon-to-be-mobile Little Lion?

Have you ever watched a row of people stand at a bank counter?

The high, old fashioned kind with a screen, not the new ones that look like space pods. Almost everyone will put their weight on one foot and bend their other knee to rest their toe on the floor.

There’s a similar preparatory position in ballet (but a little more turned out), you usually use it before you set off on an exercise that travels across the floor, or in the wings when you’re about to run, leap etc onto stage.

In this position there’s a little rock onto the back foot that you take before you set off. It’s a fairly small movement, but the idea is to take it a breath before the start of the music so you can start in an active state, rather than trying to catch up. Being off balance keeps you alert.

I feel like I’m waiting for the breath before the music that will set me off balance. I know the outline of our new routine, but it’s not in my body yet, it doesn’t feel natural and automatic.

So merde to everyone starting new things next week, we’ll be thinking of you.

Tag: first day of school

Returns, Reviews and Restitutions

Preparatory Position