A few years ago, a family of high wire artists had a terrible fall from the high wire in the middle of their performance. All of them were killed or maimed, except the father who escaped with broken legs. But even after losing his children in the fall, a few months later he was back to work, in the circus, on the wire again.
Someone asked him in an interview, how he could bring himself to do it, after such a terrible accident. He answered; “On the wire, that's living”. All the rest is waiting.
This leads to a choice point for the artist. To wait, with despair and remorse or to accept what is and act.
In the above story by Christopher Alexander, in his book “The timeless way of building”, what do you think is the high wire artist doing? He is creating a clearing. A clearing for his life. For him, life shows up when he is on the high wire, in the act of balancing. Inside this clearing, a backdrop is created for liveliness, anything else other than being on the wire is merely waiting - waiting to be in the anticipation and anxiety to be alive. This leads to a choice point for the artist. To wait, with despair and remorse or to accept what is and act. Acceptance thus becomes a natural, logical choice in this created clearing of Life. Acceptance is not about being 'alright' or being 'OK' about the new reality but rather it is an acknowledgement of the new reality, a new normal. Acceptance is thus the readiness to live with it.
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