I’ve been in celebration mode this week! Canada Day on Monday, 4th of July on Thursday, aware of friends having a special High Tea party Saturday – plenty of opportunity for us to have fun and do some out-of-the-ordinary things.
Our daughter Pamela drove up to Columbus from Chattanooga to visit, and so we spent time exploring both outer and inner landscapes and mysteries. Who knew that 2000 years ago, Native Americans whose name has been lost in antiquity, but are now referred to as the Hopewellian people, had built earthen mounds and HUGE geometric structures in the Ohio River Valley region from which beautiful artifacts have been excavated?! Ancient Mysteries.
We also had fun exploring some more modern mysteries at COSI’s Mythbusters exhibition. We played with hands on experiments – with suggestions not to try these at home. 🙂 Though I discovered yes I CAN successfully pull the table cloth out from under the dishes leaving the dishes sitting ON the table, I DIDN’T make it out of the parking lot in the “Driving Blind” experiment! Even though it was fun trying, we never did figure out if we got wetter walking or running through the ‘rain’ (see pic on right!) And despite being the slowest EVER, I had tons of fun in the phonebooth changing into my Superhero outfit (see video below.) How didSuperman do that?!
Back at home, we treated our senses to yummy food, we savoured samples of some special single malt scotch Pamela had brought, and played with some sparklers in the back yard – not necessarily in that order! And together we explored delicious ideas in our inner worlds – about expansion of possibilities and cultivating greater freedom in choosing our responses to life.Through all these experiences, I’ve recognized my journey of more deeply integrating my Codes – those organizing principles and noble needs I’ve only recently become more clear about and conscious of. It’s been powerful to recognize how attending to making sure I create space for them enlivens me, and how vital they are to my authentic expression (in truth I believe this is so for each one of us.)
| Slowest Superhero Ever – but SO much fun! |
Another contributing piece has been a re-membering (a more clear and powerful integration in my body) of a deep truth we (at least I) often tend to forget – that making sure things in life go well is NOT just up to us! While we are responsible for making our choices and taking action, controlling or trying to force any particular outcome (even the ones that sometime seem to us essential) is not only exhausting, it is neither possible nor the way life actually works!Despite my fun playing dressup Superhero, that’s NOT a role I want to keep trying to inhabit!
Remembering the powerful desires and visions of possibility that emerge through us are not ours alone, but an expression of what Life itself is desiring to co-create through us,seems key. AND, like the story of the blind men standing around and describing an elephant, each one of us ‘sees’ and has access to and responsibility for only that part of the big vision of what Life is desiring to co-create that is ours. It is in community, each one engaging in the part that makes our hearts sing, that together we will make a difference.When we keep all this in mind, remembering that Life is supporting each of us in becoming the fullest expression of who we came here to be, it’s easier to take time ‘off’ to have fun. And when we do this, the aliveness that flows through us not only feels great in the moment, it also fills our tanks of creative juice, and fuels us as we engage in whatever else we’re called to!