(caveat: the following are advices to be lightly held. Maybe they will be thinking prompts. What is below is not for the newly or acutely bereaved. Some of the ideas here may be useful after a while, but they are not a substitute for a  medical professional or a grief specialist.)

So here you are. By design, choice, or luck - good or bad - you are facing a new horizon. Perhaps a cyclone has dropped you into a completely new land. Perhaps you are stepping out of a broken down Tardis. Perhaps you have packed your pirogue and slid into a great river. Perhaps the people are around you are loved ones or old comrades. Perhaps you are pursuing a new love. Perhaps you feel alone.

At first glance some things seem familiar or understandable, then the differences start popping up. Maybe too many differences. My new yard is lousy with tiny dinosaurs. But we do not have mosquitos or slugs. Everything is different, some things obviously beneficial, others not so much - a lot of the time I don't really know what is going on.

I want to feel grounded - this is my goal. I want to feel like I am at home. I want to be connected with my purpose. I want to be able to find my way in this new landscape.  Fortunately I am old and wily.  I have flipped my world before. I have learned a few tricks.  None of them absolve me from the hard work of re-orientation. Nothing short circuits the time it takes. But it is really important to have a goal and some idea of how to get to it.  Re-orientation starts with observation. It requires the acquisition of knowledge and skills with all the messy short-term failures that go with it. And it requires dedicated action. 

The observation stage requires you to slow down and really listen and see. Be abundantly curious. There is research to do.  Sometimes it is a nicely scientific process; observe, hypothesize, test, observe, document and adjust. Rinse and repeat.  But sometimes it is way more random than that. You may need to talk to strangers. Lay down your easy answers. Ask lots of questions. Ask weird questions. Ask dumb questions. 

If done openly and persistently, observation will lead right into knowledge.  

Here are some things you might want to know:

• What is this place or condition called?
• Who has gone before me here? How did they live? How did they die?
• What grows here?
• What are the seasons here, or what do phases or milestones look like here?
• Where does your water come from? your electricity? power in general?
• What are the dangers to be avoided here? Are there any fabled tales of woe?
• What were you put here on Earth to do? Can you do that thing here?
• The questions are infinite. The questions are good.

This is a start. This is what Alivia and I are doing. Again. For the umpteenth time in this life.

We will be fully oriented again. 

// posted by Peggy Senger Morrison @ Sunday, June 05, 2022