RoadTrip Chronicle #10
While I won’t address you specifically in this Chronicle, when I write and I say things here (and in every Installment), I am writing to You. Before I write each Installment, I read through the names of friends, family and acquaintances I share with in this way. And, as I literally prepare to email it, I individually select you and your email address for each /every distribution.
This is one way I can connect on my side of this experience with You. And, to You who responds to things that I say, Thank You. To You who reads and doesn’t respond to me, Thank You for reading what I have shared.
I’ve recently been having fun using the blower. It’s a bit of exercise, strengthens my wrists and encourages me to imagine what ‘being the Wind’ might feel, act, sound like from ‘the Wind’s’ perspective. This is a time when I am very aware of the ‘dance’ I am choosing and doing with ‘what is’.
‘Wind’ used to be my least-favourite element in nature for various reasons. A major shift of perspective on this occurred for me many years ago when I read JZ Knight’s book Ramtha: The White Book. In it, there is a story of a long-ago conqueror who, as I recall the story, commanded huge numbers of troops, with an equally large contingent of accompanying families and workers to support the soldiers. Over decades, they waged a long campaign of siege and domination, conquering the known world.
At the end of a long siege of the last city and remaining civilisation to come under his rule, during a great gathering with pomp and ceremony in a huge hall made entirely of marble, the conqueror was being presented the keys to the city. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, at that moment someone ran a long sword through his side. To all standing in the hall, it appeared to be a mortal wounding*.
He dropped to one knee. A strong and seemingly-invincible man of impressive stature, he watched as blood flowed from his wound into and along the cracks between slabs of white marble flooring. Suddenly, he heard a voice within commanding him to ‘Stand up!’ ‘Stand up NOW!’
And so did he, jamming one fist into the gushing wound and rising to his feet. As the crowd witnessed this, , knowing that this injury would have been fatal to all others, they fell to their knees in awe. Following this demonstration of might, strength and determination Ramtha was widely acknowledged, and reigned for many years, as the known world’s ruler.
He endured months of recovery and began, when he could again walk, going every day toward a mountain he intended to eventually climb. Eventually as he healed, after some time and repeated journeys, he reached the mountain-top and was sitting in contemplation of all that had occurred in his life to that moment.
Suddenly, he became aware of a breeze blowing on him, mussing his hair and disrupting his reverie. He commanded the Wind to ‘Stop!’ And .. it didn’t. It kept blowing on and this annoyed him. He became angry and loudly demanded the Wind to ‘Stop NOW!’
Every day, he would climb the mountain, meditate and become annoyed with and command the Wind. Never being successful. This went on for some time. Then one day, returning from the mountain, he neared his troops’ encampment. Many had gathered to celebrate his recovery, for he now was obviously walking with confidence, looking robust and in
good spirits after a long time of disability.
Men, in those times, when they were not in battle, wore full-length robes, with nothing underneath them, for ultimate comfort. As Ramtha approached his people, the Wind whipped his robes up and over his head.
– – – – –
As I read this story many years ago, I contemplated how I could reframe my own relationship with Wind, and I did. I decided to learn from it. To dance with it. To be guided by it to see and to experience it and to observe and learn from what it is and does. To befriend the Wind.
After years of appreciating the Wind, I am not at all annoyed now when it rearranges thousands of leaves I have just spent time and effort blowing somewhere. Wind merely blows them elsewhere. Simultaneously, in a rhythm that works, The Wind and I are dancing.
Here is a photo of the trees after this recent 3-day wind and rainstorm. Contrast this with photos taken at the same place – looking out toward the pond (shared in previous Chronicles). Amazing how much more visible the pond, the vegetation in the middle of it and the hill behind it are today.
Speaking of photos I have shared in these Chronicles, a few friends noticed kangaroos (!) in Installment #9. BeLoveds who were taking their own long roadtrip through Australia sent that photo of roos. Thanks, Glenn, for graciously sharing this! Here is a treat for us all:
Glenn and Marion’s RoadTrip Video. Prepare to be touched deeply.
Thinking of my ‘doings’ on this RoadTrip at this time, I thought of including a recipe for Cabbage Pie. Why? Because it is so very yummy. And then I thought, ‘Ah, maybe not’. So, if you’d like to prepare cabbage in a new way, I invite you to let me know and I’ll send this recipe to you. It’s absolutely delicious.
With a sense of sharing and pleasure, I’d like to reference a book gifted to me recently by a dear, long-time Friend whose grandson is autistic. This book was written by a grown man who is also autistic. If this is a curiosity or interest area of yours, perhaps you too will appreciate reading of this extraordinary man and life. How to Be Human: An Autistic Man’s Guide to Life, by Jory Fleming / Lyric Winik.
I have been almost as busy as I was when I was working full time as a business owner / consultant in Hong Kong. If I decide at some point to work for pay while here in Maine, obviously some of the things I now dedicate focus and time toward will necessarily shift. That said, and happily for now, one of the many things I am learning about and familiarising with is something called IDGs. Inner Development Goals.
These are tied to 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 (SDGs) created by the United Nations in 2015. A group of people worldwide have been collaborating for several years to define ways that humans think and behave which they believe are vital to the success of SDGs.
In 2021, the first IDG report was published explaining the background, method, framework and suggestions.
Closer to home, a group of six friends/colleagues involved in a Study Group in AncientFuture.TodayTM (AFT) discovered this information as we were discussing our own goals and the 30-year framework of The
Mastery Project TodayTM of AFT.
I
f you are curious to learn what any of these things are, here are links to start with. AFT’s project is only 1.5 years underway; and we are in early, early days of considering how we are going to structure and implement our ideas for encouraging Collective Mastery on this amazing planet.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
Inner Development Goals: https://www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org/
AncientFuture.TodayTM : https://ancientfuture.today/themasteryproject-today/
– – – – –
I heard this spoken in a Netflix film the other night, Lord of the Rings: The Power Ring:
‘Those who wonder and wander are not lost.’
As someone who wonders a lot, often (and spends time researching and learning about all sorts of things); and who wanders deliberately and has done so for much of my life, I appreciate that: I do not feel lost. I do not feel found. I feel free. To think, to explore, to live and to breathe. To choose how I feel. To have an opinion, or not need to have opinions.
To choose with and on whom I spend time and energy. To love deeply, authentically and vulnerably with every one I meet, know and imagine living on this planet and beyond. To create. To destroy. To add. To delete. To play. To cry. To move. To stay put. To be. To do. To say. To be quiet. To live fully. To love and laugh and live out-loud. To be loved as I am. To work. To write. To sing. To dance. To paint and draw and sketch and knit and felt and sew and build. To clean. To make a mess. To stomp in the mud and play in the rain. To pet, embrace and hug. To be embraced, hugged. To ‘push back’ on something as a way to calibrate. To be generous. To give. To receive. To be curious. To speculate. To ruminate. To cogitate. To discern and make choices. To change. To grow. To cry. To be intimate. To be private. To write. To read. To rest. To effort. To smile. To share. To say ‘Yes!’ To say ‘No!’ To say nothing. To value. To be grateful. To be kind. To empathise. To care. To show up. To ask. To see and to be seen. To hear and to be heard. To witness and to be witnessed. To identify my ‘True North’ which is uniquely my own and to live in alignment with that. To be joy-full, healthy, beautiful, happy, mad, glad, sad, fulfilled. To wildly feel and be ‘Me’. To live without apology. To be fully response-able and account-able for all I say, do, think, create, cause.
And, to wonder. And to wander.
How do You feel these days? What is moving about inside of and around you as you move through each day and night? I am interested. And .. if you haven’t shared your thoughts with me yet about these 5 questions, there’s never a bad time to do that. Now, or whenever you are ready, and would like to .. all good.
1. What do you cherish about this country? (*Friends, others who are
not Americans or who wish to think about and comment about their own
country, or the world instead, are very welcome to do that.)
2. What three things would you change?
3. How do you envision those things changing?
4. What are you doing, or willing to do, to help change those
things?
5. Anything else you’d like to tell me?
Here are my contact details. I look forward to receiving your ideas,
sharings, thoughts one day.
Thank You 🙏 , in advance.
Diane Wilcoxson; diane@betterthink.com
Blessings and Well Wishes, always. Diane 🌹
* If you are a story-teller and/or interested in words, you may find this examination of
the phrase I used to describe Ramtha’s sword wound to be good reading.
* https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/117376/what-does-it-mean-to-be-mortallywounded#:~:
text=%22Mortally%20wounded%22%20is%20used%20to%20describe%20a%20wound,die%2C%20
such%20as%20a%20narrator%20in%20a%20story.