Jumping through the hoops

The hoop.

 

We talk about it - the proverbial constraint, the difficult or annoying hurdle that we must overcome in order to get to a better place.

But what is the hoop in actuality and what kind of hoops do we come by? 

There are visible hoops -  the obstacles that sometimes appear insurmountable, obstacles that we size up and conclude, at first glance: whoa, there is no way.

Each visible hoop, can be argued, has one, or perhaps a few invisible hoops tagged to it.

The recipe for success in approaching a hoop is to jump through the cohort of invisible hoops first since they are the hardest one to tackle:

 Some examples:

• let go of our fears
• let go of past negative experiences
• accept that we can fail -  trying in itself is a worthwhile exercise
• accept that we can only do our best
• limits are liberating (they teach us where the boundaries are)

Once the invisible hoops squared out, we can proceed to the next set of hoops - the physical, real ones. 

The strategy for attacking visible hoops is  either a set of previously learned techniques or a brand new and creative approach to jumping.

Either way, the hoop appears to be a transitional element, a flat land of opportunities and emerging routes.

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Some excerpts from Corson's Inlet by A.R. Ammons that, in my opinion, render well the experience of jumping through any hoop:

"..the sum of these events
I cannot draw, the ledger I cannot keep, the accounting
beyond the account:

in nature there are few sharp lines: there are areas of
primrose
   more or less dispersed;
disorderly orders of bayberry...
........
I have reached no conclusions, have erected no boundaries,
shutting out and shutting in, separating inside
       from outside: I have
       drawn no lines:
       as

manifold events of sand
change the dune's shape that will not be the same shape
tomorrow,

so I am willing to go along, to accept
the becoming
thought, to stake off no beginnings or ends" 

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