Movement is life!

I love movement! I always have! Though culturally it was not expected from me that I liked so much to be active, play sports, climbing trees and so on... moving, freely... dancing at the rain or jumping over waves, chasing cats or playing to make friends... I always loved to move. I love to move, I love to feel my body moving and I love to move in a dance with other moving bodies... I conquer my space in the world, I am here, I am me and I am alive. I am visible for others and I am visible to myself. I can do things, I can act, I can act and produce an effect in the world that surrounds me. But, most of all, it was in moving that I always found myself closest to what happiness can be. The type of happiness that does not announce itself! In moving, especially when I was playing volleyball at my favourite beach, I was fully happy! Me, the court, my partner and the opponents, we were a unit! A unit of wholeness and purpose, which dissolved at the end of the game, but during the magic moment of the match we were all fundamental elements of a wholeness that fulfilled our senses, minds and souls!

I can understand that many people may not share the same passion for movement that I do. That is perfectly understandable and acceptable. But I also know that there are many other people who simply did not have the opportunity to discover the joy of movement, or that, having had that opportunity could not develop it further. Dis/Ability is a case in point. Dis/Ability, purposely separated to denounce the insufficiency of any definition, challenges many many things in the way we think about our humanity and the duty of care that should bound every human being.

 In my case, I would like to contribute for everybody to experience similar happiness to the one I have experienced in my experiences of sport, dancing and exploring movement! Everybody, even the ones who perhaps too quickly we would say cannot move…

Anabela Pombeiro (left) and me (right). Wonderful times on the summer of 2009!

 

 I am creating this blog to keep this passion alive, to channel my voice in the world, to build a small niche where perhaps I can make some difference and initiate dialogue with other voices who have similar purposes or who feel discriminated in their opportunities to move. My favourite terrain is sport’s world and I hope I will be commenting and reflecting on a wide variety of issues, events, discussion that I assess as important to make of sport and other movement activities an instrument of social justice and   human development!

This blog is also an open and sincere invitation for dialogue. I would love to hear about your experiences of movement, ideas, stories connected with the broad goal of using sport and movement activities as tools for social justice and human development! Perhaps some other day, I need to explain what I understand by these! But for today, it is just the birth of a very personal project!

Playing for Lincoln Imps, 2010/2011 season against the national team of Canada.