Spiral

Many images stay with me from my visit to Isle LaMotte last week: herons flying low over the lake, starry skies at night, coreopsis flowers tossed by the constant breeze, and…fossilized gastropods!

The shape of this 450-million-year-old mollusk fossil, photographed at the Goodsell Ridge Preserve in the center of one of Vermont’s most remote Champlain islands, reminds me of the Yin-Yang symbol. Its swirling, spinning curves represent how Yin and Yang are interdependent and continually transforming from one to the other, just as day turns into night then back into day.  Endings are opportunities for new beginnings. The “10,000 things” of the world wouldn’t exist without their opposites defining them.

Taoism teaches that this is the nature of everything. It’s all relative. It’s always changing, and yet there is pattern and continuity.  Feeling the connection between this prehistoric life form and our present-day Qigong practice of swirling, spiraling movement reminds me of why I love Qigong. Its simplicity and harmony with the natural shapes and qualities of life both reassures and reminds me we’re all part of a universe much bigger, older, and more amazing than we can imagine.