Getting ready for an eight-day trip around New York State (which has turned into a rather fascinating episode of "This is your Life"), I emptied out my travel handbag, a messenger bag. There was nothing in it except for an old printout about "The Hero's Journey" published by Maricopa Community College (a more comprehensive and updated version of this is at http://www.dommy.com/az2nzau/docs/qoln_paper.pdf). I used to use this in my teaching. Why was it the only thing in the bag? I don't think it's coincidence. Something in me must have known I'd need to look at it the next time I traveled, and bring it with me.
It's kind of a reminder both of how valuable such a model is (am I in the "departure" phase of my life, the "initiation," or the "return"?) and how fluid. Everything I have written recently suggests that I'm near the end of the initiation, or well into the return (when, exactly, does the caterpillar's skin come off?), but life also presents micro-journeys, like this upcoming one or simply the journey of any individual day or hour or minute. There's also the theory, posited in Maureen Murdock's The Heroine's Journey, that we women may be more likely to head inward to face our dragons and demons than to outward solutions like careers and conflict, which has has certainly been my experience. And yet physical movement into the world, onto a bus or train, into familiar or unfamiliar territory, catalyzes growth. We are all on a hero's journey, every single day. I feel a great deal of anticipation for this upcoming week, even though I frustratingly seem to have chosen to make another adventure on a ridiculously short shoestring. Liz Lavish, who I was trying to resonate with many months ago in a blog post, has yet to really emerge (!) But every tiny step recently has fallen into place because of love, and I am reluctant to break the momentum of that paradigm.
The morning's second striking thing was encountering a short video of Julia Roberts, speaking as "Mother Earth" from an organization called "BUnited." (I'm not providing the link because it came out so long that I think I wasn't doing it properly, so I hope maybe the video will either make its way to you, or you can find it yourself.) Anyway, Roberts basically addresses humanity from above, saying that the planet will go on and evolve, no matter what we humans do. I just loved hearing "Mother Earth" speak powerfully. It puts everything that's happening in the world into perspective.
When I started this blog over a year-and-a-half ago, I was sure that eventually it would gain huge popularity. Except for a few blips, it hasn't yet. Sometimes the list of what I don't have overwhelms me (I had one of those tearful moments last night), and being a writer with few readers is in that hard category. If I have never fully despaired, it is in part because I've always been aware of the ever-moving nature of the life journey. You set your foot in front of you and suddenly you are on the highway, or in the boat, or on the moving escalator, or whatever metaphor appeals. Something is going to happen this week. Something unexpected or beautiful or compelling or challenging. For me, it will be looking at the my birth State with new eyes; for you, it could be an unexpected phone call or invitation or windfall. With this new metaphor of the caterpillar in mind, I'm taking heart that after many weeks of stasis, holding my breath in the face of jaw-dropping world change, the wings seem to be unfolding.
