By walking on a large circle with a curved top (like a tube bent into a circle) I discovered peculiar things. I became aware that there was often an echo in my stride after a misstep or loss of balance, so that, a step or two later, a slightly less pronounced but similar series of body movements were produced. Later, I was able to use this observation to realize that the balanced, skillful steps also produced an echo, and that I could effectively learn to cultivate, focus upon, and ‘ride’ this flow-sense through difficult situations (walking the circle with eyes closed, backwards, wind, whilst spinning something, etc.).

I wish I might have more clearly seen how, invisibly, something similar was going on in my life. In some circles, I was echoing skillfulness, and attention, and riding the favorable rhythm produced. But in others, I was not aware that I was unconsciously repeating certain kinds of ‘losses of balance (or vision)’ in serial sequence. In those, I was obeying the chaos-rhythm of cyclic imbalance and incoherence. At the time, I had so little insight into my own behavior that I was almost oblivious to this. Now, I feel that I can see that there was more at play in my circle walking than I then imagined.