Flow..........

We are currently reading and analyzing a book about called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience  by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (don't ask me to pronounce that, I don't know either....).  So far it has been fairly informative but to me somewhat redundant and merely restating what is common sense and practice.  But it does put it in a more scientific context.  It also evaluates different ways for people to engage in flow.

Flow to me is something that you realize in hindsight,  something that while you are engaged in flow you should not be thinking about being in flow, and flow should be nowhere in your current range of thought.  And so this book kind of gets me out of flow more than it teaches me to be in flow.  Especially as a person who is as engaged in the natural world as I am. During the majority of this previous summer I have come to understand and realize that I was immersed in a constant state of flow.  My summer job is as a Ranger at the Philmont Scout Ranch, the largest youth camp in the world.  And with over 23,000 participants, the largest season yet, you'd think it would get hectic.  But throughout the summer, no matter what challenge occurred I had was ready mentally and physically.  I was in a constant state of flow allowing me to make decisions smoothly and efficiently for the groups I was leading.

And even in the past few weeks I have incurred many a moment of flow, from slack lining outside my dorm, to climbing practice and even class work.  Floating on Saint Regis in my kayak, and enjoying the sun rise and set through the fog on the lake with Mount Saint Regis standing erect and picturesque in the background. I always seem to be able to find flow in whatever it may be I am doing...it is always there..........