The Sweet Spot

I was walking the dogs along a bluff above our local, tennis courts, when I heard the distinct "whack" of a tennis ball connecting with racket. I have not played tennis for many years, but I remember that sound well. I have a sense in my body of how right it feels when you connect with the "sweet spot" on the racket. The sweet spot on a tennis racket is the part of a surface that gives the most power for the least effort. When your tennis ball is hit from that place, you know it by its distinct sound and by the way it feels in your body.

In my experience, hitting the sweet spot was rare. I could still get the ball over the net, but not often with that sense of rightness, with the perfect stroke. I am reflecting here on how much of life I spend slightly off the sweet spot, still moving forward, but perhaps without "the most power for the least effort." I am connecting this with the image of an auto pilot gauge in an airplane's cockpit and how you can see the gauge always a bit off its primary coordinate, always readjusting and returning to center, readjusting and returning.

I suppose this is good metaphor for how I navigate my life, usually slightly off center, but attempting to return there again and again. Isn't this how we learn? Begin again. Begin again. Begin again. Notice. Return to center. And that center that we return to? The sweet spot? There are a lot of words for it. I call it Essence Self or Entelechy. Maybe you call it Soul or Spirit. Just as with a tennis stroke, I know it by the feel of it, when I am present and living outward from that centered place. When I am living from my sweet spot, my essence self, everything is easier. Just as in tennis, my words and actions are more powerful. They flow. They can be trusted. Again and again I reach for it and it always feels like coming home.

But what about the vast amount of time I spend lobbing the ball across the net yet not hitting the sweet spot at all? I guess this is the practice space and without the discipline of that practice I would never learn to relax back into essence self. Most of life is lived here. I don't see this as wasted time. I am encouraged each time I receive a gentle, inner prompting to wake up when I have been asleep at the wheel, and relax back into essence self. There, in that sweet spot, I remember what its like to live in this human body in a way that is easier, more effortless, and enjoyable. I think we can learn from each other here. I think we can call each other home, again and again. We can help each other remember. Shall we each grab a racket and practice together?