This summer I find myself experiencing the subtle and persistent feeling of overwhelm. I’ve been “on the road” for nearly two months now; and though it looks like it’s all mosques in Istanbul, boats and sun-drenched islands in Greece, and “high vibes” yoga festivals in breathtaking mountain towns… well, it’s all that, and….. Behind the scenes of the social shares is the inevitably complex web of raising teen girls, running a business from the road, a sense of suffering in the world with detention camps, climate change, and my frantic attempts to ground myself in the midst of the movement, and the internal tension that arises each time I board another plane, boat, train to more movement.
It’s not an unfamiliar level of movement. I’ve traveled regularly for both work and play since my teens; and I know what this kind of movement demands. And yet it’s always surprising to me when my body-mind doesn’t want to keep up with the exciting agenda. When it wants to linger in the small-self’s sense of drowning in world and self troubles.
My business happens to be my passion, and is run with a collective of those I love. Having teenage daughters is all kinds of devastating, yes; but it’s the most exquisite ride I’ve ever been on, and I’m still—sixteen years in—experiencing depths of love I never thought possible, and important lessons about letting be and letting go. And there are the remarkable environmental organizations out there run by people who’ve followed their dharma… and I’m lucky enough to get to collaborate with some of them.
So as I sit here in front of another museum in Istanbul, a catamaran to another island, an ancient church in Madrid, a famed bridge in London thinking about the next place I’m off to and the next place after that, I take a moment to poke myself in the ribs just a little and laugh at what the mind does with this precious life. It’s a moment to observe that everything I’m experiencing is exactly what I’ve asked for. It’s what I’ve put my time, my concentration, my life’s prana into—and now that it’s here? I’m stressing anyway.
How very human of me.
So I giggle. Laugh a little...at the adorableness of it all. Laughter. It truly is medicine. And friends help too.
Today, I’m looking for the cracks in the I/me/my drama-spin for a micro-glimpse of the humor of this human journey. And I’m inviting you to laugh along with me if you find yourself spinning the web of overwhelm and self-appointed stress.
OM OM OM ~
