I wait until the end of the day again and now I'm at the climbing gym.
I know this drill. I'll climb, and while I'm climbing I'll scope out who's here. When I'm done I'll ask someone to make eye contact with me.
My radar is up while I'm climbing and as soon as I see her I know I want to ask her. Her head is partially shaved and the rest of her hair is bright pink and purple. I notice, and like, the tattoo on her back and left shoulder.
"I'm interested in that person and I am a little intimidated by her," I think to myself. So I know she's the one to ask.
I am aware that I have been living for many years with a behavior/thought pattern in which, when I see someone who I think looks cool, or inspiring, or attractive, or who I admire, I "rank them above me" and think that they are "too cool" for me to approach ("why would this person give me their time?") or think that they are intimidating. LMEC is, in part, a practice I am using to massage this pattern out of my life and replace it with different behavior and different thought systems.
She's probably not intimidating. And I bet that, after we make eye contact, when I tell her that I thought she was intimidating, she'll probably think that's a silly thing to think about her. So here we go, let's find out.
I'm sitting on a bench, changing out of my climbing stuff, when she walks by, and I call out to her, ask if I can interrupt her climbing, and ask if she'll make eye contact with me. She asks "why?" and I tell her I'll tell her afterwards. She agrees to do it and I suggest she sit down.
I try to turn on my timer but it isn't working.
The battery is dead.
Instead of giving up on the session I say "let's do it for what feels like 60 seconds" and she agrees.
This will be an interesting and different session!
We begin. I am counting to 60 in my head. It feels like a long time. I am not able to focus as keenly on her, but I am trying to count and really pay attention to her, to be relaxed, to breathe calmly and deeply, to connect with her and share energy. Since it feels like my counting is taking a long time I occasionally skip a number. Right near the end she gives me a big smile and a small laugh.
When I reach 60 I tell her. She was counting, too, and we were keeping almost the same time! We shake hands and exchange names.
I tell Louise what motivated me to invite her to do this and, sure enough, she doesn't see herself as intimidating.
"I'm not intimidating!" she exclaims.
I don't think so anymore, either. That's what this is about. To make the world more approachable to me and to open up the interesting people in it.
After sharing what motivates me to practice LMEC we take her photograph.
A detail that inspired me to approach Louise was a sameness in our adornments.
Her tattoo is of a tree branch with a bird perched on it.
Today I had a bird perched in my hair.
