What I'm Learning in Grad School (& on the river)
halfway thru my first Term already!
Don’t overextend. That’s the gist of it. My first project in Conservation and Wildlife Biology and already the prof is telling me my thinking is PhD level, instead of in-class project level. On the river, the rowing coaches remind me of the same but in different words—don’t reach as far. My arms are long and I’m pretty flexible so the bottom line is, ‘Do less and channel your power in other, more effective, ways.’
This image and the video below are from earlier this year, after 30 years of not rowing, so if you’re a ruddy rower don’t laugh too hard at my shoddy form and taped up knuckles (to keep from scraping myself with my own nails)!
I’ve also been learning from the river to stay steady in the waves. When you’re on a water-bug type boat any shift is evident and is liable to destabilize the whole endeavour. One woman I’ve rowed with has a rear view mirror on her cap because turning your head affects the balance of the entire boat.
For years I’ve been working with untwisting my pelvis (another, longer story) and how it radiates through the rest of my joints. Rowing and cycling offer me very helpful feedback loops for feeling just where the twists and assymetries are. Getting evenness in my sitz bones on the seat and the pressure of the balls of my feet on the pedals or foot plate, and keeping that symmetry while in motion, is no mean feat (pun intended). And others can feel it because we engage more on one side in order to steer or turn, so if I’m already torqued on one side, I’m inadvertantly steering us out of straight.
Another thing I’ve been learning is to get the position of my seat and my feet organized, as best I can, before we get into the boat, which simply takes experience knowing approximately where things need to be set for my body. Trying to unscrew, shift, and re-secure things in the dark without capsizing while others are chomping at the bit to get rowing and there’s traffic on the river is an unnecessary bit of clown-car hilarity.
Last but not least on the rowing lessons for today, keep beauty in sight. Enjoy it all, including the wobbles, the interpersonal dynamics, and the humbling reality of being less than amazing. Because at least you’re alive to experience it all!
When I had MYOGA studios in Barbados, Puerto Rico and then New Zealand, online friends would send me yoga-related articles and info. When I walked the waters of Seneca Lake and the Missouri River with indigenous elders, I was given research on water and indigeneity. When I had The Amazon Academy, folks sent me strong women links. When I got into stand-up comedy people sent me bits they found funny (though aren’t bits funny full stop?!). And now that I’m ensconced in science, those close to me send me science-y things like this amazing rendering of the world’s famous rivers drawn upwards into space as trees of life, using a geographic information system (GIS) that I’m learning this Term called ArcGIS.
Or when I told a friend I was looking at pollen in honey samples under a microscope, he sent me this very recent publication about 3,000 year old bees mummified in their cocoons.
Here we are in the lab, smearing honey onto glass slides and using actual microscopes to see what’s hidden inside!
Another dear supporter and friend sent me two bits of news. One is a podcast of a small but significant edge forward that New Zealand is making in the battle against plastic, and that her colleagues at the Ministry for the Environment have led! Key to our understanding is not simply to swap materials, like paper for plastic, but to swap mindsets. Rethink your single-use approach and take on more of a trust the longer journey approach! The year I lived in my own wee cottage on Waiheke Island I minimized my waste to 2 bags of rubbish over the whole year, which felt amazing. Hannah, in this interview, talks about how she and her family have managed No Waste! since 2015. Impressive.
And the other link Anne shared with me is this harrowing, yet hellishly helpful reminder from longtime eco-warrior Bill McKibben, reminding us that we still have much waking up to do. No one cuddles up to the alarm, but most of us need it to wake up to the world we’ve co-created.
We all have so much on our plates these days and, with the acceleration of collective time and the diminishment of personal time, it’s a miracle more plates aren’t spinning into shattered pieces. I’ve been hugely overwhelmed by the shift I’ve chosen with grad school. Learning the content is one thing, especially for a brain that hasn’t done any intensive focus in science in 30 years. But so far it’s the context I’ve been struggling with most, as I attempt to orient to ‘the way things are done ‘round here’, before I can even reach and delve into the content. I’m trusting the longer journey by doing what I know first and chipping into the blocks of the unknown as steadily as I can.
Having this blog and the imaginary conversation with you helps me to take stock along the path for, “the process of writing is the process of thinking.” (And one of the big contextual things I have yet to learn is proper referencing! So forgive me but I don’t know who said that, if any particular person at all, or if it’s just a general wisdom...)
So thank you for reading and may your journey be blessed with deepening awareness and kind connectivity, Mox
I seem to remember telling you that getting your masters degree was simply going to be a matter of keeping your ass in the seat! (Im breaking my arm patting myself on the back) You have already earned several experiential Masters' degrees many times over. Why? Because you always do your best, and because you are bloody brilliant! Getting a Phd will be a piece of cake too! The toughest thing you will have to do is decide 'what learning is worth and what is worth learning. Ive carried that phrase around for years now and realized just now its an exclusionary way to think, at least for people like you. Lets try, Those who judge are not excluding others, they are defining themselves.' Still havent hit it on the bean. Hows this?: You have the ability to do great things. You know what matters most in the world. Just go after solving it like a dig with a bone. (Except dont bury it this time.) Anyone who tells you you are thinking too much is holding you back. Just stay the course and keep your ass in the chair!😉🩷