Welcome to Movement Memoirs!
I’m Sherri Spelic, writer, mover, talker, listener. I’d like to do a thing with lots of other folks. You’re invited.
Thinking about the different ways we move through the world, this project stands as an open invitation for us to record and share our reflections with each other. My goal is to post entries as they roll in throughout the month of November 2019 and beyond if needed into this blog. The questions/prompts to which I asked contributors to respond are:
- Patterns and Habits: What do you notice about the ways you choose to move through the world? How do these versions vary based on a given context (i.e., difference between work & home, childhood & adulthood)?
- Tell us a personal movement story that has stuck with you. What clues does it offer you about who you are/were/strive to be?
- Barriers and challenges: What are some barriers or challenges you face or have faced that have impacted your access to a movement of choice? How have these influenced your thinking about your body in the world and the role of movement in your life?
- Connections: Physical movement can be a useful metaphor for any number of things. How and in what ways do you use your movement choices and experiences to make meaning in other areas of your life?
Why am I doing this? I’ve been deeply inspired by Antonia Malchik’s book, A Walking Life, which talks about the many ways our modern societies make walking in numerous contexts a challenging or even dangerous option. We have so much to gain with movement of any kind and we put a great deal at risk when free movement becomes a luxury good. I want all of us to think about the ways we employ movement to express and enact our independence as well as our interdependence. Let’s consider our individual movement histories and what they have meant for us and how we connect with others. Let’s talk about where we find joy in using our bodies and where we experience challenges. All of these aspects matter.
Antonia Malchik writes: “Everything we know about our world, everything that we perceive, interpret, reason, create, all of it comes through our bodies. There is nothing about the human experience that isn’t related in some way to how our bodies exist and move.” (A Walking Life, p. 197)
Here is where we document those perceptions, awarenesses, reflections on what it means to be alive in these moving bodies then and now.
Movement Memoirs 