Archive for January, 2007

I went bowling last night, an endeavor I usually suck superlatively at. I say usually, as if I do it with any frequency greater than once every five years. My score averages in the twenties, but that doesn’t lessen my enjoyment any.

Something happened last night, I don’t know if it was the ball, or the lane, but I kicked ass. Every time I got up to the lane and let go of the ball, it felt right and I knew it was good. I couldn’t ascertain what exactly I was doing to make it good, it just worked. I didn’t think too much about it, except to note how easy and effortless it felt to excel. I bowled five strikes. My first game I scored 136, the highest of the 30 people I was bowling with.

Then, as mysteriously as it began, my lucky strike streak ended. Everything felt different, the holes seemed to hold onto my thumb, my legs weren’t so graceful, and the ball navigated itself towards the gutter. Try as I might, I couldn’t get that new great bowler back.

I didn’t do any special  exercises before my bowling. I was actually feeling a bit stressed from organizing our bowling field trip and all of the math that involves (bowling fees, shoe sizes, lane numbers). When I stepped up to the lane, I hadn’t put much thought into the bowling, I just did it. And I just kept doing it, and I kept doing good.

When everthing started heading towards the gutter, I tried so desperatly to adopt the same attitude, the Zen attitude. But the more I tried to force it, the less Zen it felt.

What happened here? How did I somehow channel a great  energy, hold onto it for a short amount of time, surprise myself and clusters of increduluos onlookers, then without warning, the good, happy energy disappearred? How do I tap back into that at will? And can I tap into that zone creatively instead of bowlingly?