A friend was going to a Polynesian island with a man she barely knew and his family. She said “I’m a bit afraid. I’m going to be surrounded by strangers, in a foreign country, with a man I don’t know.”
Since she is from Oklahoma, I reminded her what that state’s native son, Will Rogers, said: “A stranger is just a friend I haven’t met yet.”
Then I said:
“When you get to the country, that new place, go, go out onto the beach, or in the woods, or a garden, or even on your balcony. Stand and face the rising or the setting sun, or the stars, or the moon, or the cloudy sky. Face the heavens.
Put your bare feet apart slightly wider than your shoulders. If you’re on the beach, put your feet in the sand, right where the waves spend their last bit of energy, where the seafoam and the wet sand moves beneath your toes and embraces your feet.
Tilt your head back to find the sun or the light or the sky. Feel the air. Close your eyes.
Raise both your arms out sideways, hands toward the light and sky, palms out, fingers spread wide, hands slightly higher than your shoulders, as though you were giving an old friend a huge hug. Breathe deep, in through your mouth and nose, deeply, and feel the vibe, the flow, of the place you are in. Connect, deeply. Open your mouth and OMMMM or YAWP or vocalize in the harmonic you feel.
As you feel the air, the wind, sense the scents, maybe wrap your arms gently but firmly around the Spirit you feel, cradle it, embrace it.
There is a certain spirit, harmonic, note in each place. Each place on earth has a unique feel, a special, sacred note. Just as a musical note sounds different played by trombone, piano, organ, clarinet or harmonica, so is the earth’s song the same, yet different in each place.
You can be jarred by it, because it doesn’t feel like where YOU are from, but if you reach out and embrace it, hear it feel it touch it, introduce yourself to it, and be introduced to it, you will connect with it. When you do, that foreign country, that new place, will become part of you, and you will become part of it. You will not be a stranger in a strange land, but an honored and welcome friend the land hadn’t met yet.
And you’ll understand why the natives are smiling.”
Posts Tagged ‘embrace’
Embrace A Strange Place: Revolutionary ImproVerse Prose
January 11, 2017Upon Having Brain Fog: Romantic IMprov Haiku
April 10, 2016If you’re in deep fog,/
spread your limbs wide and embrace/
new, deep sensations.
Embracing Versus Facing: Revolutionary IMprov Rhyming Haiku
September 16, 2013I vow not to “face”/
another week. Instead, I’ll /
embrace and seize it!
Hating Evil Love: Revolutionary ImproVerse Haiku
August 11, 2013The very evil/
I talked about not being,/
I now have become.
OR
The very evil/
I talked about not liking,/
I now have embraced.
Convertible Morning Commute: Revolutionary Blogging Haiku
April 9, 2012 I, driving top down, /
stretched both my hands skyward and /
embraced the sunrise.
OR
I, driving top down, /
stretched both my hands skyward to /
embrace the sunrise.
Facing My Fear: Revolutionary IMprov Poetry
July 7, 2011I face
and embrace
my fear.
It’s being a motivator,
not a regulator
nor intimidator.
For in staring fear down
I find
I don’t drown.
I open my mind.
You must be logged in to post a comment.