Obeying the Law

An object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will continue with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

It’s the law.*

I remained in motion on the same path: I worked hard. I cared for my son. I cared for family and friends. I maintained our home. Always forward. Until the forces became unbalanced. Life became unbalanced. Momentum was interrupted and I came to rest in one spot. No longer propelled forward, or sideways. No longer in motion.

Now I remain at rest. For too long. Waiting. Waiting for some force to act upon me, to change my rest back to motion. Is there nothing that will give of its inertia to me? Am I meant to remain here, motionless, as the world moves around me? Have I no potential (energy)?

It is I who must be the force. All sides of this law are within me. I set myself in motion from the start. I used the support of friends and family to fuel my vigor and set out on a path. I was also the force that stopped that motion.

The laws of science, of life, tell me that there are all kinds of potential energy – gravitational, magnetic, electric, chemical, etc. What I didn’t remember from science class, was that the wrong kind of potential can change the outcome in drastic ways.

Gravity can be a great motivator for pushing our bodies to learn. We get strong fighting against the push & pull, climbing mountains, lifting weights, standing tall. But gravity can be the enemy to which we succumb, dragging us down, willing us to stay in bed, on the couch, on the bench, out of the fray.

Magnetism can be exciting and powerful. It is quick and decisive and once drawn together, it can be hard to pull yourself away. You have been matched with the element that fulfills what is missing in you. Positive and negative joined as one. Yin and yang – the whole is greater than the parts. But, magnetism can leave you attracted to the wrong place, joined to the wrong people. Magnetic pull doesn’t care about anything other than that to which it is attracted. Single minded, it forgets that there is more to you than this attraction.

Electricity may keep us invigorated. It is stimulating to feel a spark of energy – that flash of intensity that fills your spirit. Yet electricity can burn when it runs too hot. That surge that pulses through you, too powerful and too fast for you to utilize it. Electrical surges can cause a lot of damage.

Chemical energy changes in us all the time. Our bodies are full of mini reactions, from within and without. The chemistry we find with another person or place that ‘feels right’ can seem like a burst of oxygen setting us aloft into new adventures. As the chemical changes happen within us and around us, it can leave us off balance, unsteady. An overflow of one chemical or another changes the solution.

I have been at rest for a long time. I was waiting for that thing that would start me back on the path which I was traveling before. But, I see now, its not the path that’s meant for me. This is why I stopped moving. I’m not meant to travel that road. And I understand now that I must be my own force. Slowly I will find my potential (energy) and begin again. A new path, turning my potential energy back to kinetic energy. Climbing mountains, attracting what belongs and enjoying chemical balance. I can’t feel my energy, but I know it’s there. Conservation of energy says that it can’t be used up – it merely changes form from time to time. So, it must be there in some form. Waiting. Stored. It’s the law.

*Sir Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687