Part of my recovery has been going to a yoga class two times per week, and on some days I get there a little early so that I can walk the track.  The track is wrapped around a tennis court.  In the numerous times I have used the track, I have never seen the track in use until last Monday.  The tennis coach was helping a high school aged male student, and I couldn’t help but to overhear their training.  I would say that it was a pretty typical lesson.  Never being one much for sports, I have no personal experience, but the coach was saying obvious things like, “Watch your feet!” and “Try again.”   It was in his more intricate advice (where my ignorance of tennis lingo shows) that I noticed a concerted effort by the student to improve.  Admittedly, I was watching.  Not in a creepy way mind you, I was just quietly interested in the process, and it was way more entertaining than counting the joggers that whizzed by me.  It occurred to me that after time and with practice, this young athlete’s body would absorb the coach’s direction, and while at first it would take effort.  I could almost hear him thinking as his face twisted in concentration while making his feet and arms cooperate in motion.  Soon, these motions would become second nature and require no thought.  His muscle memory would take over and he could move on to learning new skills to layer on top of what his mind and body had already accomplished.  But just as painstakingly these skills are accomplished, without care and continued practice they are easily forgotten.  The body and mind become lazy if they are not exercised regularly.  This is as valid for our creative mind as it is for our athletic body.  It has been too long that I have let both my mind and body go, and they both are simultaneously screaming at me to “Be active! NO! Wait, sit on the couch! No! Do 400 hours of yoga! No! Couch again!” and “You haven’t written in you blog in almost two weeks! What is wrong with you?  But, school sucks! There’s no time to write!” Like the athlete, I have to be in constant motion towards life.