The Heel at Stonehenge
Compliments of Evelyn Philbrook
There was barely time to reflect and make temporary repairs when another hurricane came by . These events intruded on the day to day job deadlines and meeting of students' counseling needs in the school Plans for the year I had made for leisure time and avocation were cancelled.
Other catastrophic events in the world, and in the lives of people I know well, that year had not eluded my compassion either.
For sure the living dead had not eaten me up. But, chaos blew in as strongly and relentlessly as the hurricanes that Fall. Let's face it! There I stood feeling paralyzed in a relative state of major pause.
What I found surprising is that I wasn't at all going off the deep end - with my pain body raging like the winds themselves,
I wasn't making rash decisions - like a twister uprooting a tree.
I was amazingly constant, incredibly present, masterfully organized in planning and implementing a response to this new and chaotic reality.
My storage shelves had fallen over and all the mahjong tiles, dominoes, chess pieces, puzzle pieces, files filled with partially written essays, boxes of paints and brushes, carefully organized books and CDs, years of photographs and slides, decks of tarot cards, and all sorts of things I'd forgotten about, all fell to the floor and got all mixed up with each other because the winds blew them all around the house.
I slowly and deliberately gestalted all the pieces into their original order - probably even more organized than they had been, picked up the storage shelves, and replaced everything that was still good.
After I took out to the street, three huge bags of trash and two boxes of useless or destroyed stuff, I took a deep breath, sat on one of the boxes, and sobbed long and hard right there at the curb.
Life is like this. Winds of change stir everything up in our homes, occasioning an opportunity to, well, clean house, renovate, and redecorate.
I threw away that which has been rendered useless by the wind and rain, reorganized what I wanted to keep and found place for it in the house.
I got a new roof, front door, insulation, ceiling plastering, fresh paint on the walls, carpet cleaning and a couple of other renovations, I might never have gotten around to doing.
But, most of all , I was very grateful for a fresh perspective.
Where did I learn to respond to crisis with calm?
From a deep source of wisdom, indeed.
Have you ever been in a hurricane - if not literally, then metaphorically? What's different now?
I wasn't making rash decisions - like a twister uprooting a tree.
I was amazingly constant, incredibly present, masterfully organized in planning and implementing a response to this new and chaotic reality.
My storage shelves had fallen over and all the mahjong tiles, dominoes, chess pieces, puzzle pieces, files filled with partially written essays, boxes of paints and brushes, carefully organized books and CDs, years of photographs and slides, decks of tarot cards, and all sorts of things I'd forgotten about, all fell to the floor and got all mixed up with each other because the winds blew them all around the house.
I slowly and deliberately gestalted all the pieces into their original order - probably even more organized than they had been, picked up the storage shelves, and replaced everything that was still good.
After I took out to the street, three huge bags of trash and two boxes of useless or destroyed stuff, I took a deep breath, sat on one of the boxes, and sobbed long and hard right there at the curb.
Life is like this. Winds of change stir everything up in our homes, occasioning an opportunity to, well, clean house, renovate, and redecorate.
I threw away that which has been rendered useless by the wind and rain, reorganized what I wanted to keep and found place for it in the house.
I got a new roof, front door, insulation, ceiling plastering, fresh paint on the walls, carpet cleaning and a couple of other renovations, I might never have gotten around to doing.
But, most of all , I was very grateful for a fresh perspective.
Where did I learn to respond to crisis with calm?
Have you ever been in a hurricane - if not literally, then metaphorically? What's different now?
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