Week 29. All at Once

2024

7/18/20242 min read

brown tree trunk between bamboo trees
brown tree trunk between bamboo trees

Some weeks require more of us than others. There are times when it seems like life is coming at us left, right, and center, there’s no time to take a breather or get a grip of everything that’s happening. Other times it might look from the outside that nothing is happening, our lives don’t change at all but inside of us, oh boy, how much is happening: revelations lighting up, insights popping, old pains rising, wounds opening, and no matter what we do, it doesn’t seem to stop. Like a broken dike lets water seep in, so many things penetrate through the high walls we built for protection and finally lets us feel much of what was suppressed since ancient times, or so it seems. There’s no stopping the flood, only getting through it. And what is even harder, no one around us can see what deep waters we’re swimming through. People around us don’t understand why we get so emotional from seeing a word on a billboard, why our eyes water up hearing THAT song or how hard it is just to get out of bed every morning after hours of crying in the night. They don’t understand, if we don’t let them in, if we don’t share our story, our growing pains with them. Of course, not every stranger on the street needs to know our whole origin story but the people who are there for us, who would love to help with anything we’re struggling with. The same people we hide from fearing being actually seen or being laughed at or mishandled, when our insecurities are playing with us.

This week’s Read is fueled by a few great songs: Nothing But Thieve's "Lover, Please Stay", Inhaler's "If You're Gonna Break My Heart" and old but good song “The Flood" by Katie Melua, which word by word talks to this weeks pondering. The music video is also quite visual and exciting, if you’d be interested to check it out. From the visual perspective it reminds me of Brandon Flowers’ “Only The Young” music video, but maybe it’s just me.

If you are going through a metaphorical (or even a real-life one, gosh I hope not) flood of external events and circumstances, or internal tectonic shifts and tsunamis, my only advice is to not brace and fight but to bend with the winds and waves, just like bamboo trees soaring to the skies so tall and withstanding the storms by swaying with the flow of life. Rigid constructions protect us for some time but they also break when we need to expand and grow.


Have a successful growing session.