Spread Your Wings and Swim

After the crumbling, came a crescendo. An era of dismantling everything I knew led to dancing my way into a new existence. Each breath was an embrace. Because dare not have I an expectation. Expectations led me to disappoint. So I learned to embrace. 

“I don’t know anything,” my dear friend said to me on the phone one day. This particular friend happens to know a lot. He’s a wise man of the teepee tradition that lives humility to the horizon and back. 

So I’ve found myself somewhere in the midst of ‘humility’ and ‘embrace’. I don’t know anything… except… my knowing. 

My knowing is a matrix of experience. It’s a feeling. A voice. A tempo. An existence. 

One day my knowing told me to say ‘hello’ to a fellow on the beach. So, I did. That ‘hello’ led to an invitation, which led to a medicinal herb delivery via surfboard to a catamaran in the middle of Hanalei Bay, which led to the beginning of a new era. 

I didn’t know it was going to be a whole new era. Because the winds hadn’t blown in that mental memo yet. 

As an herbalist, I was rooted to the land. But my heart needed healing. Surfing became my sanctuary, but I was still barely staying afloat. Wave by wave, inner whisper by whisper, life was guiding me, encouraging me to sink into the ocean’s deep embrace. 

“Dive. Deeper. Spread your wings and swim,” said the voice. So I did.