 |
| Alex & Her Guardian Tree Bess |
(GAOG) The other night, I was watching a movie with my husband after shoveling out from the snow storm. We were both exhausted from our physical labor and wanted something light to watch.
We settled on the movie, The Replacements with Gene Hackman as the coach chosen to lead a team of strike-breaking football players, and Keanu Reeves as the Quarterback. I assure you, your need to know about American Football will be limited and I will get to the point quickly, but it’s really amazing how insights can be triggered by the most unlikely things.
The coach asks this band of misfit players what they fear, and after some comedic asides Reeves mentions quicksand. The coach asks him to explain what he means, and what the quarterback explains really struck me as something many are experiencing right now.
Quicksand occurs when everything seems to be going well and then one difficult thing happens, and then another, and pretty soon you are sucked under and paralyzed with the feeling of fear and the belief that you can’t do anything.
His explanation and the knowing nods of his team mates made me think of my own life and how many times I have felt this way. Most people probably have as well. At this time of intense change, increasing energy and crumbling paradigms, any additional challenge can push us easily into overwhelm mode.
Sometimes we do not even realize we are at that point until we feel the intense stress and tension within our bodies. We then wonder how we unconsciously got into this deep hole, and how the heck are we going to get out of it. We see what appears to be an overwhelming challenge, and we wonder if we are up to the task.
Part of the issue, for me, used to reside in a lack of confidence in my own abilities. We seem to remember, as big as a skyscraper, the times we have failed; but if we piled up all the times we have succeeded, the pile would reach to the moon and back.
We settled on the movie, The Replacements with Gene Hackman as the coach chosen to lead a team of strike-breaking football players, and Keanu Reeves as the Quarterback. I assure you, your need to know about American Football will be limited and I will get to the point quickly, but it’s really amazing how insights can be triggered by the most unlikely things.
The coach asks this band of misfit players what they fear, and after some comedic asides Reeves mentions quicksand. The coach asks him to explain what he means, and what the quarterback explains really struck me as something many are experiencing right now.
Quicksand occurs when everything seems to be going well and then one difficult thing happens, and then another, and pretty soon you are sucked under and paralyzed with the feeling of fear and the belief that you can’t do anything.
His explanation and the knowing nods of his team mates made me think of my own life and how many times I have felt this way. Most people probably have as well. At this time of intense change, increasing energy and crumbling paradigms, any additional challenge can push us easily into overwhelm mode.
Sometimes we do not even realize we are at that point until we feel the intense stress and tension within our bodies. We then wonder how we unconsciously got into this deep hole, and how the heck are we going to get out of it. We see what appears to be an overwhelming challenge, and we wonder if we are up to the task.
Part of the issue, for me, used to reside in a lack of confidence in my own abilities. We seem to remember, as big as a skyscraper, the times we have failed; but if we piled up all the times we have succeeded, the pile would reach to the moon and back.
