I like the idea of warming up. Maybe because the idea of dropping straight out of sleep into a packed day is a bit bewildering. Maybe because I grew up doing ballet, where half the ballet class is warming up, practicing essential movements.

We can apply the idea of warmups to many domains. Getting your blood moving and stretching out muscles before taxing one’s body physically. Reading a psalm before composing a prayer of one’s own. Journalling “known” thoughts & feelings before writing to explore something new; or externally, rehearsing a speech to oneself before giving it to others. Vocal warmups. Math problems. Logic and geometry.

School stuff. Because the stuff we learn about in school—the “essential movements” of life—are only as good as what we apply them to later in life.

The danger, as always, is that we forget that the “essential movements” are to be put into motion—brought to life—in the dance. We practice so we can perform. Or more accurately, participate.

We do not practice for practicing’s sake. That way lies recursion and futility and frustration.

I have come to believe that this life is a warmup, in a way. Our time on earth is a chance to practice the “essential movements” of living, of choosing the Good, the Beautiful, and the True—so that we, too, can join the dance.