Welcoming September

I’m working on it!  In chatting with a friend last week, I described the transition from August to September as my “hurry up and wait season.”.  There’s an underlying sense of urgency, anticipation and hopefulness during this time for me.  My to-do list grows as I send in the instruction plans for another year of homeschooling my children (turning 6 and 9 this fall!).  There is wonder as I refine the curriculum and watch the constellation of beings joining teacher training take form.  There is curiosity as I wait to receive the caseload of students I will support in my role as a Speech-Language Pathologist this school year.  While there’s plenty to prepare, there’s plenty of waiting and space holding because ultimately, my plans will be simply a loose structure, and they will change form as I get to interact with my students in various realms.  And, while I’m ready to release the fluidity of summer for a bit more rhythm, the start dates for the routines that await pend later into the month..  

I was feeling frustrated about this “hurry up and wait season” until it dawned on me that this is simply another liminal space.  I love the way Octavia Raheem describes liminal spaces in episode 185 of the Space for Magic Podcast:

What is liminal space? It’s the space of no longer, and the space of not quite yet. It can feel like nothing, and everything. It’s the space in between and unknown. 

Octavia Raheem

For many the unknown can bring feelings of uncertainty. Octavia suggests that it could be a place of possibility instead.   We can choose to pause, to linger. We don’t have to rush to the next thing, instead Octavia encourages us to allow the pause. Be present to the possibility.

A shift like the one from uncertainty to possibility is one we can practice through the yogic teaching vitarka-bādhane pratipakṣa-bhāvanam (Yoga Sutra 2.33): “When disturbed by negative thoughts, cultivate the opposite”. 

~ First, I notice the thought, feeling or experience: Uncertainty 

~ I sense what it feels like and where it is held in my body.  I notice the emotions and stories it propels in my mind.  I name it and allow it.

~ Then, I cultivate the opposite: Possibility

~ I sense what it feels like and where it is held in my body.  I notice the emotions and stories it propels in my mind.  I name it and allow it.

A shift occurs from restriction to expansiveness.  From grasping control to receiving support.  From rushing to resting.

In Pause, Rest, Be, Octavia writes:

“Beloved, as we drop beneath the surface of what is known, we enter a place of possibility. A place where the one thing I am sure of is this: I do not know what this part of the path holds. I do know that we are held.  Everything and nothing exists here.”

There is peace in this for me.  I hope contemplation on these words or exploration of these practices brings you some peace when you need it, too.