I went down a rabbit hole tonight and only realized about ten minutes ago that it was past midnight already. Experiencing this is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I’m annoyed that I got so caught up in what I was doing that I lost track of time. But on the other hand, the experience of diving into an activity and becoming so immersed in it that I lose track of time is a profoundly sweet pleasure.
Having this experience makes me realize just how rare it’s become in my life, and that makes me sad. Of course, I could make different choices and create more opportunities for indulging in such focus. Perhaps I will. But if I’m honest with myself, I probably won’t.
Part of the reason for that is that I don’t live in a vacuum. I live with Karl and we’ve settled into certain routines and ways of coping with how we manage the outside world. We’ve become comfortable in our ruts.
New Choices
Losing myself in the act of learning something new tonight really has me reflecting upon how much our lives have changed over the years. I realize (with some relief, I might add) that I do still have a reasonably decent attention span. I know it’s dwindled to some extent by virtue of all the electronics in my life and the irritatingly addictive dopamine effect of checking for email or ‘breaking news’ or text messages.
But at least I’ve not lost it altogether.
Realizing this, I’m feeling a yearning to reclaim some of my time. Perhaps make some new and different choices on where I place my attention.
I don’t want to mourn the dreams I have yet to fulfill just because I’m unwilling to turn off our television. Perhaps there’s a compromise I can negotiate with myself (and Karl).
Perhaps this whole unexpected conversation with myself is a reflection of something I need to give up at this time of the Virgo full moon. It’s the last full moon of winter. Spring arrives on Sunday.
Seems like a perfect time to make some new choices.
I had to stop at my sanctuary today. As so many of you know, Tohickon Creek is one of my primary sources of healing and solace. I feel love within its flow. My heart knows peace when I allow my eyes to drink in her yielding ripples. So in spite of the myriad obligations on my ‘to do’ list today, I physically took myself to this font of life in order to catch my breath.
The daily onslaught never ceases. We’re bombarded with outrageous conduct and insane accusations about institutions that we know are safe, reliable, and trustworthy. We’re gaslit and fear-stoked relentlessly in a cynical attempt to delegitimize our trust in the foundations of our society so that – finally admitted to out loud today – he can simply ‘remain’ in power.
Tohickon – ripples – Photo: L. Weikel
Here It Is
In case you missed it, if you want to know what the Trump Republican game plan actually is this election season, you must read this article. Everyone needs to read this article because we must hunker down now and prepare a game plan. Proceeding as if this is anything close to a normal year and a normal election cycle is utterly insane and irresponsible.
Everything is at stake.
Meanwhile, Breonna Taylor is treated as if she never existed or, perhaps more accurately, her life didn’t matter. At all. As I saw one person put it, the grand jury in Louisville valued the drywall of her neighbors more than Breonna’s very life.
But as I mentioned in my post the other day, it is essential that we take care of ourselves and prepare. If the way I felt today – and the way I think I saw so many of the people I love and care about (I’m looking at all of you, in one way or another) feeling today – is any indication, we must redouble our efforts to feed our souls.
Now is the time for us to do whatever it is that brings us peace. And no, I don’t mean numbing ourselves, tempting as that may be. Because that stresses our bodies. Numbing ourselves ultimately breaks down our immune systems – and let’s face it, we need to be beefing those babies up. Why? Because WINTER IS COMING – in every sense of that phrase.
Until you can get yourself to your version of my Tohickon, I share these photos with you. Drink them in. Let them nourish and sustain your soul.
We need to stay alert, pay attention, but most importantly, take care of ourselves and each other.
Eleven days or so ago, I asked for guidance in the form of a single Point of Focus for us all to hold on to as we navigate these extraordinary times. As you may recall, for that Point of Focus ‘pick’ I consulted the Ocean Oracle, by Susan Marte, and the card I chose was Stingray: Flow. My contribution tonight is simply a photograph. A photograph to help us maintain the flow.
Of course, it is a photo of my beloved Tohickon Creek. I visited her a couple of times over the past two days and she brought me enormous comfort and inspiration. I wanted to share the energy of that sacred place with all of you.
Many or maybe all of you have your sacred places, too, which bring you comfort and peace. At least I hope you do. I want to think everyone has at least one place they can go to connect directly with Mother Earth and drink in her magic.
I’m sharing this photo in particular, though, because it just seemed to capture the essence of our Point of Focus: Flow. And sometimes it’s helpful to have a mnemonic to which we can refer easily and often.
Innocence and Youth
The other photo I thought I’d share with you as we begin a new week is this action shot of a fawn scampering across the road in front of me as we took a walk last night.
What I didn’t manage to capture was the moment I discovered this little fawn standing right beside us, in the bushes right beside the road. The baby couldn’t have been more than twenty feet away from us. We locked eyes and I grabbed Karl’s arm to stop him mid-stride.
We were both astonished when the fawn started gingerly walking toward us! It was tough to maintain an air of nonchalance while frantically trying to grab my phone out of my pocket and set it to ‘camera.’
Not unsurprisingly, the baby quickly realized approaching us might not be its best choice, and it scampered down the edge of the field then crossed before us – which is the length of time it took me to get my act together enough to catch an image.
<<sigh>>
But hey. Karl and I both felt a thrill as s/he initially moved toward us so confidently. Perhaps it was just innocence and youth. Perhaps it was just going with the flow. As we begin this week, let’s all make a point of going with the flow. Until given another Point of Focus!
I was going to title this “There’s the Other Shoe!” or something like that, and then I realized all the crazy destruction of the Rule of Law in our country that’s flagrantly taking place in plain view of us and the rest of the world isn’t ‘THE’ other shoe. It’s just ‘another’ shoe.
Welcome to the apocalyptic Final Five Months. They’re either going to be the final five months of DT’s presidency or the final five months of the United States of America as we know it. And as I mentioned the other night, no matter what happens on election night (just like it didn’t matter how the Supreme Court ruled), if he wins: we lose; if he loses: we lose because he acts out, throws a bomb into the toilet (or worse), refuses to respect the election results, and dares anyone and everyone to remove him from office.
Whoa, Lisa. That’s dire. Aren’t you being just a tad hyperbolic?
No, actually. I don’t think I am.
Not the Half Of It
I sensed this week would be a challenge. The eclipse took place over the weekend, and it just felt to me as though it was going to kick off a month of unprecedented revelations and discoveries of corruption and rot throughout this Administration beyond our worst fears – including its malignant enablers in both Houses, but especially the Senate.
Sadly, I don’t think we’ve seen the half of it yet. (Then again, to be fair, it’s not even been a full week since the eclipse.)
But believe it or not, I’m trying to rein myself in. I’m trying to refrain from gaming out the repercussions of DT’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence and the effects it will have to the bigger picture.
I’m trying to wrap my head around the fact that DT did this, tonight, when we also received confirmation that the number of positive Coronavirus cases in one single day in our country topped 70,000 tonight, too. In case you’re keeping track, only one week ago we were horrified that there were more than 50,000 positive cases diagnosed in one day.
These are daily cases. Over 70,000 people tested positive today. And our president just commuted the sentence of a man who said out loud just today (when requesting a commutation) that he deserved it because he resisted providing evidence of the president’s complicity in a crime.
Step Back – Re-think
I chose cards a few days ago requesting guidance on how we might want to view and respond to whatever unfolded this week. As you might recall, I chose Stingray – Flow the first night, and then followed up in the next post with Jellyfish – Hidden Gifts and Sea Glass -Transformation.
Choosing the Flow card was in itself a comfort. In some ways, every moment I deliberately chose to go with the flow and not worry over “What ifs” provided my nervous system with opportunities to remain peaceful, which in turn kept me centered and even hopeful every now and then.
The Hidden Gifts and Transformation cards were the ones I chose specifically for guidance on dealing with DT’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on his tax return cases, so it feels incumbent upon me to actively resurrect them in our consciousness.
There are hidden gifts in the blatant erosion of the Rule of Law. Our country is being threatened from within in a way that rivals anything in our just-shy-of 250 years, with the possible exception of the Civil War – and it may even, pardon the irony, eclipse that.
Hope
But my eyes keep going back to a couple sentences in the accompanying text to The Ocean Oracle, in ‘The Story’ of the Sea Glass:
“(…) She thought of the journey the glass before her had taken, how these pieces were all parts of something else at one time. A bowl, a jar, a bottle – some sort of vessel. And how these vessels had been abandoned. Or lost, or broken; left to the rhythms of nature, broken down over time. And she thought of the forces which had shaped the sea glass in front of her – forces which broke down the original structure by pummeling, pulverizing, caressing into a shape which was softer, translucent, and more adept at change. (…)” (emphasis added)
I want to hold on to hope that our country and everything we stand for will, in the coming days, grow more translucent and adept at change as we face, head-on, the gifts that are hidden in the egregious behavior and neglect that’s being perpetrated on us and our system of government every day. Every day there seems to be another shoe dropping. Please let us discover the hidden gifts they reveal that lead to a transformation that benefits us all.
OK, let’s get real. There will be repercussions one way or another tomorrow; repercussions that we’re all going to have to respond to and deal with. And either way things go, the fallout is almost certain to be of epic proportions.
You know what I’m talking about: DT’s tax returns.
Those who closely follow the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) are indicating that tomorrow will be the day that we receive the decision on the ‘tax return’ cases. We’ll either discover that DT is, in fact, “above the law” while he’s president and therefore does not have to comply with the law as all other citizens would in providing his tax returns (to Congress for them to fulfill their oversight duties or to New York in furtherance of a criminal investigation) or he does have to disclose those tax returns.
Either way, there will be fallout and we will be the recipients.
Happy Dance
If he perceives himself to have won, we can be assured of a couple of things: First, he will gleefully do a happy dance on all of our heads. He will crow and cluck and lord it over all of us (but especially his political rivals) that he is king, that he is untouchable. He will praise the Supreme Court and deem it to be the wisest, most amazing judicial body in the land (comprised of “the best people”).
That would be bad enough. But we all know it won’t end with a little gloating. Not only will he rub it in our collective faces (and he will, as he has every other time he has enjoyed what could be construed as a win), he will also consider it a green light to do whatever he damn well wants. For instance, and at a minimum, whatever behavior he’s trying to hide in those returns will be continued. You can bank on that (pun intended). But DT being DT, he will immediately engage in even worse illegal behavior. Why? Because the SCOTUS will have said, “Be our guest.”
But as bad as that sounds? There will be even worse repercussions:
If he wins this case based upon the fact that he is the president of the United States, does anyone in their right mind think he will ever willingly walk away from the presidency? Of course not. You can be sure he won’t. He’s already been broadcasting this intention for months, if not years. But if he escapes responsibility for adhering to the laws of the United States simply because he holds the office of the president, I guarantee he will engage in extreme measures to hang on to that advantage.
And we can no longer plausibly react to anything he does with the trope, “But no one would ever do that.” Of course he would. He will.
Angry Stomp
And if he loses and is told he must comply with providing the returns either to the oversight committee of Congress or to the State of New York? Or both?
We will see gyrations and a flailing about that will make anything we’ve witnessed so far in the past three and a half years of egregious presidential behavior pale in comparison. The stakes are that high for him and his family.
He will create a distraction in the world so monumental that it will boggle our minds. And don’t think for one moment he isn’t ready to sacrifice however many people it will take to make us look away and perhaps even ‘forget’ about his tax returns.
No. I have a feeling that either way the decision goes tomorrow (unless they punt on rendering a decision until the next term), we are in for some major fallout. And even a punt by SCOTUS, at this point, might have unexpected and heretofore unbelievable repercussions.
Still Flow?
I’m curious if we’re supposed to deal with all of this fallout with the continued Ocean Oracle counsel of “Flow” that we received yesterday.
Perhaps we are. Just in case, I’m going to choose another card now. Let’s see:
Wow. Well, I never would’ve guessed these two cards would be the message we’d receive, but here they are. If these are any indication of the fallout we can expect, perhaps ultimately, the truth really will set us free.
We can only hope. And go with the flow.
The Ocean Oracle: Jellyfish (11 Hidden Gifts) and Sea Glass (35 Transformation)
It’s summertime (in the Northern Hemisphere, that is), a time of the year when many of us make a pilgrimage to the ocean if we’re not lucky enough to live near one. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, or the Arctic* (since in fact there is only one ocean on Earth). The simple truth is that humans flock to the ocean for inspiration, rejuvenation, and relaxation. Thus I’m drawn to consult The Ocean Oracle created by Susan Marte, for some insight.
I mentioned quite a while ago that I thought I might consult various oracles now and again to give us some guidance through these confusing, turbulent, and increasingly unbelievable times we’re experiencing. It’s been weird: while I thought it was a great idea at the time, I’ve repeatedly felt a resistance to choosing from the myriad decks and other tools that are a part of my library. So I just go with the flow. And tonight, for whatever reason, I was nudged to pull some cards for us from The Ocean Oracle.
Point of Focus
I keep wanting to choose three cards for a wide-ranging discussion on what we need to contemplate over the next several days in order to get the most out of what will be unfolding in the world. But I feel a push back.
My own thoughts aside, I feel like I’m only supposed to choose one card for us to use as a Point of Focus. So I’m going to choose one card while holding the following question in my mind:
What do we all need to hold as our Point of Focus in order to gain the most benefit out of the next several days:
Ocean Oracle 39 – Stingray (Flow) – Susan Marte
Stingray – Flow
I think we can all relate to how this may be sound advice for us all to heed. We’re going to need to flow with whatever is thrown at us over the next few days (or weeks and months, for all we know). It’s easy enough for all of us to ‘intuit’ what this card is telling us. My sense is that we will want to keep repeating the mantra to ourselves, “Just go with the flow. Keep flowing. Don’t get caught up in the drama of others, because now – right now – our point of focus must be to go with the flow.”
As Susan Marte, the creator of the deck and a dear friend of mine, so beautifully states in the booklet that accompanies this unique and beautiful deck, “(…) You are the grace and ease and flow of the stingray as you navigate life’s waters.”
Note: I just want to point out that I wrote that second paragraph, above, before I chose the card on our behalf. So I had to laugh – when faced with the sense that I wasn’t supposed to do things the way I first ‘thought’ I was going to, instead of balking and forcing things, I chose to ‘go with the flow.’
I’m guessing I’ll need to keep that up. We all will.
*There may be less actual flocking when it comes to the Arctic Ocean, but I’m sure it happens.
Although I didn’t set a schedule for implementing my idea of consulting an oracle or other means of guidance for us to bear in mind, I was sort of leaning toward choosing one tonight so we could start the week out with something new to think about.
Well, if nothing else, that just goes to show what happens when you only sort oflean toward doing something instead of making the firm commitment to do it.
Had I made a definitive commitment to choosing on our collective behalf this evening, I would not have had a beer earlier.
Stickler for Clarity
I know; it probably sounds dumb. But I do try to keep myself as ‘clear’ as possible when doing energetic work, even if it’s as simple as centering myself and selecting some guidance. And that’s particularly true when I act on behalf of someone else. And since this would be accessing guidance on behalf of all of us, it stands to reason I would not want any substance cluttering up my ‘reception.’ Or perhaps it’d clutter up my request; who knows?
Either way, I’ve decided to wait until tomorrow night.
Of course, that leaves me in a lurch. Here I am with nothing to write.
My Personal Policy
I might as well come clean on my personal policy. I’m not exactly sure when or where it originated. Perhaps it’s just always felt like the right thing to do. If I could point to a specific person who modeled this behavior for me, I’d given them credit, but I can’t.
This whole attempt to be as clear as possible in order to allow the energy to flow unfettered extends, obviously, to when I have a session with a client. That means when I have an appointment scheduled with a client, I don’t drink alcohol the night before. Obviously, then, I would not indulge on the same day as doing any work for someone. (At least not before the session!)
Sometimes I think I do it because it’s simply a form of dedication and discipline. It’s a commitment I make internally to being a clear channel – the best purveyor – of information and energy I can be for my client. And it’s a small sacrifice I make, an awareness I bring to the responsibility of working on someone, that reminds me that what I’m doing isn’t a game. It’s an honor.
You’ll be glad to know I’m offering you a reprieve from another installment of The Harrowing Tales of Lisa’s Possessions. (There’s actually a joke in there, but I’m going to leave it be.)
It’s Friday (or probably Saturday by the time you’re reading this), and we all need to take a breather. It feels like it’s been a week of extremes, and I’m tuckered out.
We had a snow and ice storm in our area on Wednesday, as you know. Yesterday, however, we enjoyed a balmy turn that took the temperature outside up to nearly 60 degrees. It was a long, sweet swig of spring, and it left me thirsty for more.
Taking a walk yesterday was a simple delight in another way, too. I let go, for a time, my worries over my car, my printers, and even my espresso machine, which also, yesterday (I could not make this up), decided to start spraying water all over the counter instead of yielding me the nectar I so earnestly craved. To be honest? I almost screamed when it had the audacity to do it again this morning.
Surrender and Promise
But my walk yesterday! The difference between Wednesday and Thursday was dramatic. While Wednesday was wild and wintery and called us all to cocoon, on Thursday, everything seemed to sparkle. I found myself smiling and feeling content and peaceful – with maybe even a hint of promise. I could almost sense the seeds deep in the earth germinating, sending tentacles of exploration up toward the surface to see just when it would be warm enough to sprout.
I took a photo of a small tributary that runs down the hill from where I was walking past High Rocks State Park. This tiny little stream, only active after significant rain or snowfall, flows over rocks and around the roots of trees to make its way into the Tohickon Creek. Its beauty stopped me in my tracks.
I’m flowing through our challenges, too. And trying to maintain a sense of humor throughout. Because you know what? It’s all just stuff.
Stuff and expectations. Learning to surrender both can be astonishingly liberating.
