Having a key phrase or word for the year has never been a thing for me. After my ordeal with hurricane harvey (I'm not capitalizing on this anymore.), I felt the world 'flow' was my birthright, and I still do because other than #loveisall, I'm not as moved by any other word or phrase. So I'm rolling my word of 2018 over to 2019- I'm just flowing! To kickstart collaboration with Malee and the other Quantum MeMoir Muses, it seems right and fitting, especially since I'm sharing my stories with the world, to start with a flow of what exactly I'm sharing. I fell in love with words and their magic at the age of eight, in the 2nd grade, when I was assigned to write my first essay. A couple of decades later, I recognized 'the magic of words' was not just a metaphor, but a real form of magic, and a few years after that when I began homeschooling classical style to my teenagers, I fell in love with an old etymology reference book. So for now until I feel otherwise led, I will focus on etymology at the beginning of the month and mid or end of month will follow up with a Quantum MeMoir journal page and analysis on the word of the month. Feel free to explore my site. May it inspire you to go within and ignite the passion without. Onward!
January 2019 - FLOW
The following etymological entries are from: https://www.etymonline.com/
flow (v.)
Old English flowan "to flow, stream, issue; become liquid, melt; abound, overflow" (class VII strong verb; past tense fleow, past participle flowen), from Proto-Germanic *flowan "to flow" (source also of Middle Dutch vloyen, Dutch vloeien, vloeijen "to flow," Old Norse floa "to deluge," Old High German flouwen "to rinse, wash"), from PIE root *pleu- "to flow." The weak form predominated from 14c., but strong past participle flown is occasionally attested through 18c. Related: Flowed; flowing.
flow (n.)
mid-15c., "action of flowing," from flow (v.). Meaning "amount that flows" is from 1807. Sense of "any strong, progressive movement comparable to the flow of a river" is from 1640s. Flow chart attested from 1920 (flow-sheet in same sense from 1912). To go with the flow is by 1977, apparently originally in skiing jargon. -Go with the flow, enjoy the forces, let ankles, knees, hips and waist move subtly to soak up potential disturbances of acceleration and deceleration. ["Ski" magazine, November 1980]
I feel the noun, flood, is worth mentioning for a richer understanding of flow.
flood (n.)
Old English flōd "a flowing of water, tide, an overflowing of land by water, a deluge, Noah's Flood; mass of water, river, sea, wave," from Proto-Germanic *floduz "flowing water, deluge" (source also of Old Frisian flod, Old Norse floð, Middle Dutch vloet, Dutch vloed, German Flut, Gothic flodus), from suffixed form of PIE verbal root *pleu- "to flow" (also the source of flow). In early modern English often floud. Figurative use, "a great quantity, a sudden abundance," by mid-14c.
After hurricane harvey flooded my life, a sense of peace enveloped me, and I knew I would be ok. Actually, I knew I would be more than ok. It's been almost a year and a half since that event, and not much of my outside world has changed at all. So unless one has been intimate with me or followed my story, it's difficult to see the how. I pretty much left the how up to God. Admittedly, that was quite a struggle releasing how. In the beginning, I just knew life would flow as it should, given the bigger picture and the real time sign that when I'm not in the right place, I'll will be forced to change. But as months came and went, and every single day there was a decision with a forced sense of urgency I had to make, I became weary and took up my own devices, eventually, and went back to my anxiety riddled ways.
The good news: “As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul” - Hermes Trismegistus
Don't get me wrong, their was quite a bit of inner transformation, but the decisions and my reactions to the daily forced sense of urgencies distracted me from feeling the 'difference.' I have an exercise I call the 'Say 'Yes' to the Universe' exercise. It is a part of my morning ritual, and I began doing it in an attempt to heal my body from what some in the medical community call 'the most painful affliction.' If you're interested in understanding more about this exercise, see here. The exercise was my first delving into somatic healing. Somatic healing in a nutshell is relearning physical movement in a way that either matches your vibration or raises it. I am not very learned in this way of healing, but it is fascinating and something I would love to study more of and gain professional insight from. Anyway, I struggled for months with just doing the exercise. Once I formed the habit, my mind began to see a new perspective on it. My saying yes to the universe was a way to say, "Yes, Father, I receive this day and all that it brings. I will not resist." After literally moving in that exercise and frame of mind, I realized that the universe is always saying yes. The universe is the universal flow. It will flow to what calls it. For real!
So if I wake up groggy, have no grounding rituals in my routine, and skip giving myself a little greeting and love first thing and foremost, I will no doubt respond to another shrew in kind. An eye for an eye. In that respect, the universe is most definitely yielding to me. NOOOOOO! That is not cool. I still nod my head for the benefit of the exercise, and I do say yes to the universe; however, I also recognize my role in co-creation. So I say yes to God's 'how,' but I define the 'what.' I let Him know what I want. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? "-Matthew 7:7-11 For real, the universe is going to give you what you want! You're going to see what you want to see, do what you want to do, and know what you want to know.
And that's the flow- it's the essence of life. It's alive and ready to create that which we ask for, that which the energy within us is vibrating. Words or no words, on the micro level of our body vehicles, the biology of our being resonates at certain frequencies. Our thoughts and actions, the internal environment, and the the thoughts and actions of others, our external environment, play their parts to create the being that we call 'I.' So if you can imagine, that is pretty chaotic! That flow is at the macro level. It is within this flow where violence and chaos reside. Taking a step back to see the bigger picture, the grand scheme, it is actually quite beautiful, like a sinister thriller that makes you think, much like the movie, The Babadook. I watched almost the entire movie with my eyes closed and was still immensely impacted by my personal analysis of it!
The good news: "As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul" -Hermes Trismegistus There is a flow within the micro levels too. In fact, there is a flow within every dimension. Life is a beautiful dance of energies, and when we learn to turn off the noise, even for one hot minute, we can recognize not just our own parts, but our own power as conductors of our personal song and dance and how our voice, our story, our song, our dance affects the greater good. From the time we wake up to the outside world, our birth, we are bombarded with the chaotic flow of rules, regulations, expectations, drama, hurt, pain, suffering, and resistance -noise. And within much of that, we learn about love, gratitude, truth, honesty, and goodness. But there's always this inexplicable nagging, a meek voice, for many it's too faint to make out the words of the stranger's voice. For some of us, when we learn to drown the world's noise, that still small voice gets louder and louder and louder, until it screams and it is the only sound you can hear, and you want it to stop. That's the flow within, clawing at your heart, telling YOU it is time to stop.
And when we begin to yield to that voice, we are pleasantly surprised to find that is our true voice, the co-creator, the affecter. And the other one, the mechanical voice that listens to the world and follows it's traditions, it's rules, it's ways, because that is how 'we've always done it,' is nothing but an effected. It's all still beautiful, but now the sense of urgency to allow yourself true freedom to be, to feel resonance in bliss is vital. And when we set out on this personal journey, we may seek spiritual truths, change diets, lifestyles, and religions, or we may just sit and contemplate our actions and make observations on the 'why' of things. And so we are called to dance within. And in this journey we will find most of what we set out to rid ourselves of or add to the richness of the self is still the world's, the collective's voice. This struggle to separate ourselves from the whole is as profound and terrifying as was when we first heard the voice of 'I.'
You cannot separate it. So then what? Purpose. You follow your purpose, because the passion within calls you to do so, and you know you will not rest until it is manifested. You recognize the flood of the universe. You appreciate the humor of God. You get busy loving by loving yourself first, by going within, by allowing a state of flow to keep you grounded, so you affect the eating, drinking, and merrymaking outside, rather than it effecting you. You are no longer effected by the decisions and choices of others, in fact, you can love them, because you know where they came from and where they are going. They cannot hurt you, because your energy no longer thrives in the throes of chaotic resonance, it goes within, to the cleft in the rock, the rock of knowing that to 'go with the flow' is a cute cliche some prefer to loathe. But you know there are dimensions of flows, and we all get to decide which one we're going to ride. Choose wisely.
My Quantum MeMoir Journal for January will be centered on the idea of flow state. Stay tuned! In the meantime, feel free to peruse Quantum MeMoir and check out what my fellow Muses are talking about.
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