She Was Off and Away
Featured
Wholesome. No jaywalking, wild shenanigans or sitting on ice cream coolers. Be mindful when biking, busing, training, and free roaming the Seoul Playground, open for business and pleasure. Clean as a whistle, without any real whistles or loud noises. No guards or gatekeepers. No honking or sirens, except an occasional nuclear warning from up North. It never blasted when I was there. Peace out. Kim Jong Un kept it in his pants, under lock and key. A rocket in his pocket. Google it.
He’s always been about natural consequences and not even scary catholic nuns are immune. I discovered on Christmas Eve this year that apparently he made mean old Sister Shirley cry back in the day, while protecting one of his daughters. He made the impossible possible!
Lights, camera, action! Surgeon to open you up. Or cut the rib cartilage and create a small trapdoor to you. Creative problem solving. History. Mayo clinic shouldn’t get all the glory! Innovation. Do your homework. Head and Heart working together, in alignment. Hand in hand. Performed. Recorded. A stabbed and wounded heart. On a hot summer Chicago night in the late 1800’s, in the heart of the South Side, the worlds first documented successful heart surgery was performed by Daniel Hale Williams, son of a barber.
Coming of age. My pure and virtuous Congregationalist turned Catholic mother rarely shared her own words of wisdom with me regarding relationships with the male species. She was busy being a superwoman and it was the 1980’s, still very much a man’s world. I thought my mom and I were so different, and I wouldn’t have listened to her advice on the subject anyway. But she shared a few things that always stuck with me. Power of the Pussy was one, short and sweet.
A tornado comes to where we are planted, our home. A shake up. We try to gain control, scream for help and seek shelter. Pulled from our roots, we are swept up into a disorienting and dangerous vortex, everything swirling around us. The void. A storm like no other. We are scared, close our eyes and cover our ears. Everything is changing and we know it.
A living, strong and majestic tree gives us a clue to the importance of a solid structure and the right conditions for it to thrive and grow. To reach for the sky. Nature and nurture. The tree’s overall health, vitality and longevity starts with its foundation, the roots. Where is it planted? Is it deep? Balanced with the essential elements and nutrients? The right amount of light? Dark? Is it protected? Adaptable to dis-ease? Healthy collaboration with other species? We can learn a lot from a tree.
Kairos time is qualitative and untethered by any moving clock or calendar. The time of the soul. It can’t be measured, only experienced. We completely lose track of Chronos time and surrender to a natural state of flow and ease.
Here and now. It’s a quiet, still place where we gather our innate and learned skills and put them to the test. We ask good questions and listen deeply. Our preparation meets the moment of opportunity and we take action.
As the seasons came and went, and the world as we knew it was changing right before our eyes, some things stayed the same. From my new lens, I see that we are far more similar than we are different. We are all a contradiction, a paradox. We are naturally beautiful in our own ways, just as we are. We may not choose to see it this way or agree all the time, and that’s okay. At the end of the day, I believe we all just want to feel seen, heard, respected and understood. I know that it starts with ourselves. We have stories to tell and common shared values to express and I look forward to welcoming in this new time and all it will reveal.
Take a deep breath and relax. It is all unfolding as it should…
Any real change to the whole (macro) always starts with a smaller shift at the individual level (micro). So, where do we begin? With the basics, of course!
The dark of the womb is the perfect container for the miraculous process of growth, in preparation for emergence into life on this planet. Life is a dance between the contractive, deep, nourishing properties of yin and the expansive, open, activating properties of yang. This dark and light relationship is at the core of every living thing on this abundant Earth.
Beginners Mind. This is seeing things as new and fresh, as if for the first time, with a sense of curiosity. Free of expectations from past experiences.
Around the 8th Century, the Catholic Church chose November 1 as their festival called All Saint’s Day to honor the Saints who do not have a day of their own. The mass is called All Hallowmas: “A mass for those who are hallowed.” The evening before is called Hallows Eve, which became our modern day Halloween.
Stories are not bad or good, right or wrong- they are just part of the human experience. The stories DO tell us a lot about where we put our energy and what we choose to focus on. And remember…what we focus on expands.
Be gentle with yourself and remember that there is always resistance in change, either external or internal. Resistance is a powerful reminder that change is happening. Be brave and true to yourself and remember the beauty that awaits on the other side….
Gretchen
Very first comment from the very first person who read my first blog post. Jone See. Rest in Power, my beautiful mother:
Comments (1). Jone See. 9 years ago. 0 likes. “Beautiful Website Gretchen. Reminds me a lot of the Buddhist teachings.”
Exploratory essays. Long and winding ramblings. Simple shorty shorts. Tips and tricks of the trade. Music and muses. Visions and views. Thoughts and translations.