Decisive movement.
Yesterday I met a friend and while I was moving towards the coffee place I was dancing on the street. Just some random, a-systematic movements to engage with the surrounding with my body. I do it every time I go out, just a small bit of movement that doesn't belong to the conventional behaviour imposed by a setting. I love doing that and it comes naturally. When I am walking I am kind of scanning the environment, listening to the things that surround me and responding to their call to engage. A small bench or a pavement inviting me to move with them This practice does magic in getting me into the flow and out of my mind so it can rest and produce more signal than noise. And it has been lovely to feel my being leaking out into the world, existential loneliness is questioned in that state, it is irrelevant.
When I was walk-dancing on the way to my friend, got an interesting insight which strangely relates to photography and to living life in general. I noticed an arising in me to engage with a particular surface, a pal to be more specific. I thought something like, wow that's a great pal, a nice possibility to explore. And as I came closer, the movement didn't really happen, my feet were in a weird position, and were slightly awkward and uncomfortable. I just moved on walking. Then another noticing similar to this, I was about to lean on the door and saw a person behind it so I stopped. My environment is full of these possibilities to engage and yet the movement remains locked in my body. The engagement doesn't happen. Probably conditions are not right, or someone is bothering me to proceed with my plan, or I doubt if I manage to make this move. Various reasons prevent me from exploring the possibilities. Interestingly, after noticing that, I decided to proceed with a movement no matter what. Even if it is uncomfortable, unflowy or not sexy looking, I carry on responding to the call of my initial curiosity. To my surprise, once the movement was unlocked from my body, I always managed to find connection and flow freely. I was ready to receive what was coming at me, a weird leg turn became a fun movement. All I had to do is to unpop my movement and that's it. If I miss the moment it is gone.
It made me think of the decisive moment a concept by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The decisive moment refers to capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself. A photographer is able to capture it and if that doesn't happen, the moment is gone and the ability to be with the essence disappears. Similar to movement, if I don't use the momentum it is gone. Metaphor took me further, thinking about the word, being full of possibilities to engage, everything in the essence is engageable. Sometimes I find myself fully open and seeing those possibilities and sometimes I am in the dark, seeing nothing and forgetting that the world didn't change, I just put the blinds on.