Coddiwompling….I have finally stumbled upon a term that aptly fits with my preferred method for navigating life. Even while raising my three sons, I tended to skirt the well-beaten path that offered safe and predictable outcomes. Instead, I leaned always towards living in the mystery, driven by an insatiable curiosity to explore new places, meet new people, have fun, laugh, and learn along the way without expectations or judgment. This way of being in the world has been the greatest gift that I inherited, and I have witnessed the next generation gracefully accept it as their own.
With my sons grown and on their merry way, I have embraced my coddiwomple ways wholeheartedly. Beckoned by the prodding at the back of my heart, inviting me to explore the edges of my life, and the often-hidden potential within my soul, I am listening deeply. I am ready again to wander the mystery of the open road.
Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction.
– Rumi
Since Covid-19, the open road remains but a metaphor. I can hear my Mom, with her soft Irish lilt, offering her words of wisdom…“It is often an ill wind that blows some good.” So, in the midst of the pandemic, I have found a silver living. Within the last few months of social distancing and isolation, I have fully realized that you needn’t travel far from home to be in awe of the world. The words of William Blake never rang so true for me:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
During this time of quietude, I have been traversing the sacred mountain of the W̱SÁNEĆ people, LAU, WELNEW, (Mt Newton) translates to ‘place of refuge, escape, and healing’. It is here that I dream, explore my inner landscape, examine my raison d’être, and plant a few seeds for my life reimagined.
I am wondering now, if you have found a silver lining? Where you go to replenish? And whose words lift you when you need them most?