Tsunamis, Global Fear, Gift Baskets, and Mid-Morning Tea

I'm enjoying this period of time I have fondly dubbed my career sabbatical, and I'm filling in the spaces with intense creativity.  My spiritual mother, Sri Karunamayi, visits the Bay Area next week, as well.  One of her programs is on March 19, coinciding with the “supermoon” and the day prior to the first day of Spring.  Just like so many buds waking up as the weather changes, my personal issues bloom reminding me of what I should focus on when She is here. 

This visit, I’m thinking about a lot more than myself.

It would be simple to say the morning started with a bang, but it was more like deathly silence.  My family and I woke to news of the devastation in Japan and discovered ours and other coastal towns were in a lockdown position, waiting for a tsunami.   There was an official warning here which closed the schools, and had people hunkering down to gather their emergency supplies.   Although Elizabeth hoped to get a day off, she didn’t because her school is in a different district.  We drove down the long road that leads out of the valley, to the top of the hill, and then down to the ocean, and it was quieter than an average Sunday morning.   People congregated at the hill’s top, their cars parked, and eyes peeled on the water in the distance.  The news coverage had citizens fleeing their homes, even the people who didn’t need to, seeking higher ground, and blocking the main roads.  It reminds me of the earthquake in 1989 when I motored home on a Muni bus while watching San Franciscans gathered outside with portable televisions and cases of beer.    Today, the big wave never arrived on the Pacifica coastline, not like it did in Hawaii and Santa Cruz, but it didn’t matter.  People were scared to death, regardless.

Spring Mini-Basket

Still the day marches onward, and after dropping off Elizabeth at school, Leslie and I searched for a good place to photograph my latest project.  I’ve been up to my eyeballs all week in custom gift baskets purchased by an extremely supportive friend here in the area.  Leslie and I found a wonderful spot at the public library and took photos that seem staged with a backdrop.  She channeled her inner site scout for this project and nailed it down perfectly!  Next stop was our friend’s place of business to drop off the baskets.   I didn’t expect her to be there as her schedule is unpredictable, but she was, and we enjoyed mid-morning tea and lively conversation.  It was good to see her.  She’s a lot of fun, tells great stories, and is an inspiration to me in many ways.

While we were enjoying our tea, I received a voicemail message from my former counterpart in Houston. She got her pink slip today, making it official: the company riffed (aka layed off) every single one of us in the West Region, with no exception.  This virtually confirms there was a plan over a year ago not only to eliminate the position, but each of us personally along with our demographically appropriate annual salaries.  I know it’s business, but it still feels personal, more so now because it’s happened to all the people I worked with and still care about.   I hoped at least one of us might be an exception.  More than a month after being let go, I’m reluctant to return to Corporate America, and I’m still not sure if this is because my confidence took such a beating or because I’m ready to move on to something else.  For example, it’s obvious gift baskets won’t pay the mortgage.    Leslie thinks getting my real estate license is a great idea (and something she and I can partner on), but I can’t imagine absorbing that much information and deploying it effectively in this complex market without an experienced mentor. I know if that is what I'm supposed to be doing, that's what I'll do, and I think it would be super to have something Leslie and I can do as a team.  I'm just not sure it's the right thing yet.

Family Movie Night Basket

It’s hard to keep up with the amount of information on the web regarding astrological inclinations around yesterday’s disaster, our emergence from the age of Pisces into Aries, and how Uranus is ushering in a long period of intense change and transformation, the hard way.  The devastation in Japan, grouped with civil unrest and revolution around the globe will make the American stock market and consequently our economy and job market more unpredictable than ever.   To this potpourri of uncertainty, we must add the numerous leaking nuclear reactors in Japan, and the miasma they are casting into the air around them.   Someone on Facebook referred to this as an isotropic tsunami and recommends everyone on the West Coast supplement their iron intake with kelp.

I know I’m standing on the precipice of intense personal change.  I don’t know where I’ll land when and if I jump.  I ask myself repeatedly, “What is my destination?”  I don’t know the answer to this, but this I do know: 

Whatever my destination is, I refuse to arrive there scared to death. 

I want to be informed, but I won’t be crippled by what I’m hearing. 

This great orchestration of global change, is out of our control, and in the hands of The Great Mother.

I'll keep creating, and I won’t live in fear.