The 2021 Olympics have come and gone. Like everything over the last months, they were not what anyone expected. No cheering audiences. Masks were worn by athletes as they walked to podiums to receive their medals. Testing for the virus became as daily an activity as stretching, jumping, running, and moving through water. Watching these mostly young people, my heart went out to them knowing their experience was so much different than most had imagined since they were children. 

The Olympics always has those of us who watch learning new words, words we never say any other time in a given four years. Triple Salchow comes to mind. “Will she land the triple salchow?”, we say, allowing it to trip off our tongues. Watch enough of ice skating and you can recognize one when you see it and to be able to flaunt the knowledge of what it is called seems appropriate.

This year’s word that seemed to be front and center was the ‘twisties’. We learned about the ‘twisties’ when Olympic champion Simone Biles sat out most of the events she was expected to win because she was suffering from this condition. Describing it as ‘the experience when a gymnast loses their ability to judge where they are in the air, made most of us quake in our armchairs. The fact that these young men and women can catapult themselves into all manner of heights and then land safely on their feet is always a marvel. To think that there might be a time mid-air when they lose the ability to know where they are is completely unnerving. Ms. Biles’ courage at sitting out of the events she has trained for over so many years provided a learning opportunity for all of us.

As I thought about ‘the twisties’, I couldn’t help but think this is a perfect new Olympic word to learn this particular year. Doesn’t it describe for many of us what we have felt over the last eighteen months? While we have not spun high in the air and done splits on a balance beam, we have tried to find a way to gauge how to hold our lives together in ways we have never done before. I know I have lost the ability to judge many things. What day it really is, for one. Which situations are safe and which are not. How to interact with others who see this pandemic much differently than we do. How to move forward from where we are into an uncertain future. All of these can throw us off balance, unable to judge, not only where we are, but also where it is best to land.

Perhaps we can all take a cue from Simone Biles. What did she do when ‘the twisties’ overtook her? Of course, I don’t know for sure what her process was when this happened but this is what I observed. She stopped. She sat still. She named the anxiety that was gripping her. She watched her friends doing the things they all love. She talked to those who support her even when she is not doing stupendous jumps in the air. Stillness. Naming. Being witness to others. Continuing to hold onto what you love. Surrounding oneself with love and support. 

In June, we thought this pandemic was on its way out the door. Things have changed and we are still in its grip. In the days and months to come, the ‘twisties’ may still visit us. But as the poet/saint Mary Oliver reminds us:”it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.” And so it is. So, I will continue to practice…stillness…naming…witnessing…loving…holding onto those who continue to circle round. All this may not keep the ‘twisties’ from altering my judgment. But at least, I know climbing back on the beam is a possibility. We can’t stay in the air forever.