the catalyst of worlds
There is the world we live in and the world we dream in. The world where we believe in ourselves and the world we doubt ourselves. The world where we rush and the world we are a lotus floating on a still pond.
There is the world of wars and loud old men speaking to louder older men. The world where women bleach their skins and fear violence will be done to them by those they love. There is the world of embracing everything that is, and the world of resistance.
There is the world where we engage in activism for injustice and the world where we withdraw and hold space for all that is, knowing it will all come and go - as everything has always come and gone. There is the world we let ourselves surrender, and a world where striving is everything. There is the world where the cancer has spread and the world where it has not. There is the world we lose who we love and the world where we love someone new.
There is a world where no one is coming to save us and the world where we are supported by all that is, the sky above, the ground below, the scaffolding of our bones holding our organs, our skin knitting the bones and our breath supporting the whole organism. Inhale. Exhale. Así. Aisa.
There are all these worlds, and more and everyday, every moment, we are stepping in and out of all of them.
Where do we live anyway?
In children’s books I read growing up, there was a Magic Faraway Tree. Many folks who grew up in India in the 1970s, 60s, 50s will know the writer of these books: a British woman named Enid Blyton. Oh her. Reading her name you might roll your eyes (her writing was not kind to brown people) or clap your hands and sigh (but oh how we loved her moors and scones).
I even made a radio documentary about her for BBC Radio Four. Somewhat cringeworthy now, but listen if you like. It was 2004 and the $ got me to Tierra del Fuego. So - there.
At the top of the Faraway tree, there was a ladder and climbing up that ladder you went into another world. But not just one world. The worlds on top of the Faraway Tree revolved into place and out of place. When you stepped off the last rung of the ladder, you never knew what world you would be stepping into. Most of the book’s adventures - there were a few books actually - came from stepping into these unknown worlds - the land of upside down, the land of sideways, the land of chocolate, the land of tricks. Sometimes, as they swung into place or swung away, someone was left behind and that became the adventure.
Which is all to say, here we are, everyday on the last rung of the ladder, stepping into unknown worlds all the time. Helpless. Swung around.
And then there are catalysts that propel us into worlds of our own creation, worlds made of our capacity to listen to what has kept us silent, to give voice to what wants to speak. These are hidden worlds, in plain sight.
They come into being as we speak, as we listen, as we make art, as we follow what calls, as we walk barefoot on the land, as we love what loves us.
Nothing changes.
Everything changes.
This happened to me when I wrote a poem about fear that changed everything that became a solo play - what I call my ONE CATALYST EXPRESSION
This lead me to create a journey I call YOUR VOICE AS CATALYST.: 6 weeks to create ONE POWERFUL EXPRESSION to shift fear, to clear the cloaks that keep you stuck, to liberate your voice out into the world.
This journey of YOUR VOICE AS CATALYST is about practicing to engage with fear playfully so you are liberated and empowered to create the seeds of your next true expression and to take 3 tiny itty bitty steps towards it. It’s mysterious and practical. ps; you don’t need one dot of performance experience or even an interest in performing to participate, because the CATALYST EXPRESSION is for your body and spirit to heal, to feel catharsis, and free you to see and act on what you love.
I’ve done workshops before, you know this, you may have been in some of them. But I can tell you, this one is different. Something compels me to write.
Something wants to speak, something wants out of silence.
Fear shifts. Fear shifts.
New words revolve into place like in the Magic Faraway tree of old stories.
All my life I have been afraid and I have lived, half-strangled even in the middle of such open heartedness. I didn’t see how much fear still had a grip on my breath till seeing the collective fear of others, I saw what was clinging on….
How the shades of fear recur.
And what heals the journey heals who is on the journey.
It’s a love-fest I tell you. A Change Fest.
I’ll be sharing voices from the first CATALYST journey on this blog and on my newsletter. And I’ll also be sharing a free EQUINOX version of YOUR VOICE AS CATALYST.
However you go, this way or that, into the journey of Catalyst or your journey, may you go towards what liberates your voice out into the world.
May you create, may you sing, may you walk, may you heal, may you love, may you dance, may you be, just be. it is enough.
with you in this world
- Shebana
EMAIL ME TO REGISTER FOR the free Zoom freebie Equinox YOUR VOICE AS CATALYST session. Wednesday March 20 at 9:30am US Mountain Time, 5:30pm Spain (check your local time here) Duration: 1 hour. On this first day of spring, let’s take a first step to excavate what keeps us silence, what wants to speak. Guided meditation, writing prompts for poetry/prose, and sharing, all in a safe playful setting. Bring your friends. Speak your catalyst. Email me at info@shebanacoelho.com. I’ll reply with a ZOOM link.
