Drafting off each other

and falling into a different state of being

Hospitals are stressful to me. Maybe to everyone. Probably so. I’m currently caretaking for a family member in such a place. And I notice a low-grade anxiety.

But then Rose comes in the room to clean up. And she emanates a joyfulness, a sweetness, a kindness. And although I couldn’t miss that if I tried, I am doing more than just noticing. I am drafting off of it. I’m letting it lift me.

Thinking about drafting in bicycle racing, I guess I’m falling into a slipstream, an area of lower pressure, when I decide to “fall in behind” Rose, to lean towards her energy.

I’m thinking about a poet I met recently in New York. He wrote a poem for a couple of friends and me, capturing our energy. But it was his energy, that I felt from a distance, that inclined me to go engage him in writing that poem in the first place. I could just tell that he was as he turned out to be… fun, kind, curious, giving of himself.

Sometimes it’s an exchange we see between two people, a generous connection. I saw a man weaving through foot traffic, running with a doll that he’d seen a girl drop. He simply caught up, handed it to her, smiled and turned back in the direction in which he’d been going. But the little micro-moment of connection lifted all who saw it.

So here’s to pausing and taking it in when we observe such people or moments. Here’s to drinking deeply of that slug of goodness. Here’s to drafting off someone’s energy and letting it take you somewhere you might not have otherwise gone.

And here’s to being somebody others can draft off of when they need a little lift. I’ve heard pastors say that the fact that the Lord’s Prayer says “Our Father” (vs. “My Father”) is a testimony to the fact that we need each other, that sometimes I need to draft off of your belief or vice versa vs. always expecting our strength to be full strength. Better together.