While packing my gym bag last Saturday, I held my basketball for a second. The sense of anticipation, of possibilities, hadn’t changed since fifth grade.
What I love the most about basketball is the experience of focusing on one thing. When a game is on, the rest of the world melts away. The only thing that matters is the play at hand. There is no time for analysis when you must make hundreds of nuanced decisions within milliseconds. There is no room to dwell on the last airball when the other team comes up with another attack. There’s no choice but to let go of the busy mind, rely on the body, and let instinct take over.
The game makes me feel free and alive. That’s why I go back for more.
“It hadn’t really ever occurred to me to let things flow the opposite way. But that’s what knitting did. It reversed the flow. It buckled my churning brain into the back seat and allowed my hands to drive the car for a while. It detoured me away from my anxiety, just enough to provide some relief. Any time I picked up those needles, I’d feel the rearrangement, my fingers doing the work, my mind trailing behind.”
—Michelle Obama on knitting, from her book The Light We Carry