Phantom Limbs

Phantom limb syndrome… according to the Mayo Clinic, phantom pain is pain that feels like it’s coming from a body part that’s no longer there. Doctors once believed this post-amputation phenomenon was a psychological problem, but experts now recognize that these real sensations originate in the spinal cord and brain. The body is calling – truly – seeking for a part of itself now gone. The brain, desiring action, is summoning soldiers of the past, telegraphing messages to a post long since abandoned. The connection has been lost.

I wonder if that is where we are now? All over the globe, we can hear the grinding of gears, a cacophony of rusted parts that no longer work. Years past the pandemic, we find ourselves trying to still fit into a suit worn long ago, shoes that hurt, lives that we left behind. And yet, we cannot seem to find the new? What we thought would be a candy-colored bacchanalia of flowers and flirting is instead a stint in some strange rest stop on a road we don’t recognize. The coordinates are wrong, the dots no longer connect. But really, how could they? We are irrevocably changed, a new organism making its way into a forever changed world. We don’t know how to walk yet in this strange new land. We are still so soft and vulnerable, carried by currents of raw emotions, washed up on strange new shores. And so tired with all the trying.

Perhaps, really, there isn’t a way to find. Perhaps there is nothing to be built. Maybe the only work right now is to softly shape a daily mandala, formed with sand, beautiful and right in the moment. To find its joy, and then do it again. And again. To be Persephone, savoring the seconds, and releasing the seasons. Humans are gifted with so much sensory intelligence, such powerful intuition, and a deep collective understanding. These well might be our new guardrails for the future, those ancient guiding constellations of our ancestors lighting these new dark seas. Those explorers put their trust in the stars and into each other. Today, and tomorrow – If we find the courage this time to do the same, we won’t just walk into the future, I believe we will fly.

It’s time for liftoff, my friends! So much goodness happening, and as usual, so many questions about this amazing quest we all share. Stay brave – and stay curious! It’s all just an adventure.