Inspirational Reading

I took the weekend to do some deep rest. My body needed it. Physically and emotionally. I don’t bounce back from busy-ness the way I used to as a young adventurer willing to sleep on airport floors or stay up past midnight. (That was late for me even when I was young. Imagine now!). I did my fair share of Netflix binging. (Yes, I watched three different films with The Rock. I don’t suggest Skyscraper but I highly recommend Red Notice). I ate warm comfort foods (like oatmeal and risotto) and I sat in the midday sun soaking up energy, hoping to transform like a plant.

I also got back into what, as of today, I'm calling inspirational reading. I have a very limited selection of physical books with me here in Italy. (My storage unit in the USA is another story…) The books are mostly non-fiction, memoirs, essay collections, or food books. I read so much fiction that my Kindle comes in handy to avoid dragging whole collections behind. My so-called inspirational reading usually consists of pulling a handful of books from the shelf, getting in bed, and reading randomly from different collections. Then getting up and grabbing another book. I take photos of things that stand out or write down notes, or just simply put the book down and let the words sit in my mind as I chew them over. I usually fall asleep and wake up surrounded by books. Is there anything better?

In between Sue Monk Kidd’s “The Dance of the Dissident Daughter,” “Honey from a Weed by” Patience Gray, and “The Silver Spoon” cookbook (looking at leek recipes), I also picked up Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Wave in the Mind.” It’s a collection of “talks and essays on the writer, the reader, and the imagination” and I find something new each time I dive into it.

This time I started with an essay called “The Wilderness Within.” LeGuin contemplates the traditional Sleeping Beauty fairytale where the prince arrives and with a kiss breaks the sleeping spell and everyone lives happily ever after. She tells of her own awakening around the tale after reading a Sylvia Townsend Warner poem which compels her to ponder, what if the happily ever after was being in the spell? What if “the silence, the peace, the magic” of a castle at rest was the true wish, and that silly prince just came in and ruined it all?

As LeGuin writes, “The cat asleep near the sleeping mouse. No noise, no bustle, no busyness. Utter peace. Nothing moving but the slow subtle growth of the thorn bushes, ever thicker and higher all about the boundary, and the birds who fly over the high hedge, singing, and pass on.” What if this, the quiet and peace of feeling safe, rested, and surrounded by nature, LeGuin asks, is the dream, the need, the desire, of the real Sleeping Beauty?

This hit home hard (she says from her warm bed surrounded by books with seven cold teacups on the bedside table). I am ready to admit that I’ve felt exhausted of late. I feel tired and overwhelmed. There are many factors to this, but I don’t want to discount the fact that the world we live in, our global home, does not feel safe on many levels. Between the pandemic, climate change, miserable news headlines, Bitcoin (it just doesn't feel real) the rapidity of adjusting to everyday new realities is a challenge for me. I don’t want the world to stop turning but I have learned how to live a more limited life. I’ve learned to embrace rest, to find wonder in small things, to lean on nature to connect me to the world, to be grateful for what is working.

The waiting game is not unusual. Whether we are waiting for a prince's kiss (I mean sure, I wouldn't turn it down), for the pandemic to "end", for Monday to start a routine or habit, for a better job, more money, a new home, a partner, a child, an afternoon snack...we are forgetting that right here, right now, might be the dream. We've been gifted with a way to slow down globally. With a moment to reassess our relationships with work, with family, friends, the environment. Instead of waiting for it to end, what if we embraced our dream right now?

This is a long way of asking you, what makes you feel safe in this world?
What part of your dream are you already living?
Where do you go, what do you do, when you need body/mind/spirit rest?
Do you also leave water cups and tea cups scattered around the house? (Obviously the most important contemplation!)

Sending you a big Tuesday hug!

Oh and to get back to the actual coaching that I do, I'm excited to announce I've updated Belonging with 2022 dates. I'm not taking on new one-on-one clients until 2022 but if you are interested let's get some dates on the calendar because my schedule is filling up.

Happy dreaming,
Henna