Red, White, and Wu

Instead of looking forward to a holiday or event, sometimes I find myself feeling like a stress ball– squeezed on and off by the pressures of planning and coordinating venues and schedules, just to name a few grayhair inducing details. This Fourth of July, I purposely avoided speaking about it in hopes that everyone else in our small group of friendship, would maybe... just maybe, not notice it coming soon enough that baam! by the time it's time, there's no time. Right...

After a few failed attempts via phonecalls, text messages, voicemails, FB messaging, and even in person (imagine that!) at coordinating everyone's hopes and dreams for celebrating America, which included 5 different venues and groups of people to reconcile, everyone pretty much retreated to just doing what's right for them.

A few days before I was googling the Chinese artist Weiwei on the wide world of the interwebs and somehow got tangled in a tangent that lead me to the Taoism concept of wu wei.

The internet says that "Wu wei refers to the cultivation of a state of being in which our actions are quite effortlessly in alignment with the ebb and flow of the elemental cycles of the natural world. It is a kind of “going with the flow” that is characterized by great ease and awake-ness, in which - without even trying - we’re able to respond perfectly to whatever situations arise." At first reading, I thought yes, finally, a spiritual justification for my laziness and my inability to make decisions. But I know better. My shortcomings and indecisions are simply me practicing Newton's First Law of Motion.

To simplify, we wu wei'd our way through Fourth of July by having left overs for breakfast and getting some light bodywhomping action at Makapu'u with some friends who were also freestyling. We spent the evening above Honolulu with cocktails, some grilled tastiness, and eating a ton of home-baked chocolate chip cookies that were very much like one-night stands- so good that night, but a bit awkward and mostly regrettable by the next morning. What will remain memorable and unregrettable, though, was experiencing the ever-changing chameleon sky behind Waikiki. As I watched the fireworks with a couple of good friends who were DFA (down for anything), DFW (down for whatever) or totally just DFWW (down for wu wei), I couldn't help but be stoked on how we que sera sera'd the day. As I contemplated this Rorschach test that is the Fourth of July fireworks show, I felt grateful and free. Thanks for letting me in, America!