Be Fluid

When you stick to what you have built up

Distortion springs from somewhere.

I feel like moving towards a renewed mind.

Be fluid.

Both body and soul.

I’ve been working on stillness this year, mental, spiritual and physical.    On waking, go immediately into a long term sitting position, twenty minutes or so,  Pain passes to calmness, which in turn instructs a better posture.  Heart rate decreases.  Be still when starting the day.  Stillness, into stretching, forwards, sideways, twisting.  Robert and Sumire taught/teach me to listen from within.  Good physicality does not mean capability of physicality.  It begins from understanding the changes day-to-day, how we elevate a sensitivity toward ourselves.  Yesterdays Paul is different from tomorrows.

Intellectually it has been a quiet year.   2025 was stillness,

2025 was full of stillness.  Wait, that sentence makes no sense.  2025 was full of emptiness.  No, not empty.  2025 was intellectually uninspired & physically invigorating. Hmmm… …

This year I was lucky enough to experience speed on a Tarmac SL8.  Body & mind connected in deep concentration as the bicycle finds ever increasing finer lines down the mountain roads.  Body exposed, naked almost & brimming with adrenaline & calmness & achievement.  Such a feeling can’t be denied once felt.  I want to take a nugget of this into professional climbing life.

Stillness & Dynamism.

I decided on November the 19th to destroy my climbing style,  Last year, after the Sweden workshop, my old climbing self appeared and desired speed and fluidity, it sprung from somewhere.

It’s difficult to find the head space for speed while designing and rigging two systems.  Belaying two devices with double the amount of rope pulling against yourself, is heavy.  The calmness & control of two line positioning is sublime yet its the movement from work station to work station that intrigues me.  The contrast between complete stillness while positioning,  to the speed that ensues after it.

Time is measured in seconds not minutes.  Increments of movement must blur into lines of movement, lines that shoot and carve and dart.  The body has to release itself into movement, leaving a trace that fades as the body increases distance from it.

Science and art in Arboriculture are two sides of the same coin.  As much as the arborist/artist desires, the technician/scientist should have no fear.  Falling, slipping, sliding, bumping, jumping, spinning, all should be achievable. The technicians hands manipulate, the body has strong muscles for control & aggression.  Incredible manipulation of mass to sink faster than lead.  The body must sink.  Spatial awareness being awareness of space & matter.  How fine can I carve lines through the tree while carrying a chainsaw, rigging gear and rope?

This is the motivation for 2026.