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April 19, 2010
Natural forces
As thousands of people have discovered since last week, indeed you cannot control NATURE. The volcanic ash cloud will ground our magnificent flying machines for as long as.. well.. nobody knows for how long..
It will no doubt interfere with many people's important plans, and the Royal Navy 'rescue' mission to bring the Brits home is under way as I write this.
This takes me back many years ago, when I too was stranded in a faraway place I went to visit for two weeks. I ended up staying two months. Luckily, nobody came to my rescue, and I spent eight unforgettable weeks in the arctic circle (Svalbard), happily accepting my fate. With no dependants and of a freelance working status, my life and my time were my own. So when eventually I was kindly offered a helicopter lift to the airport by the Governor visiting our station, I accepted it with mixed feelings.
During my prolonged arctic experience, I was forced to give up control, to give up the Ghost of Planning (that enemy of Seven in the Enneagram), and to really live in the present.
Never before or after had I felt so small, humble and insignificant as in that grand natural scenario, so part of the bigger picture, so at the mercy of the elements, and yet so much alive and so close to the Great Ineffable.
Now. if I could have some of that without leaving my immediate urban setting; or at least without going further north than the North Pole pub in W10..
Posted by Marzena at April 19, 2010 07:24 PM