Sylvia's Journal

I realize that I am now down to one post a week. Time for quiet reflection has been at a premium. Ahead of the blog are my daily meditations, my yoga practice, infrequent as it is, and the long to do list. Yet, in spite of a long and stressful week, today in Quaker Meeting I felt energized, connected and in tune with something bigger than myself.

When the hour was over I discovered that I had been oblivious to all the people who had entered after I sat down. One of them was Sita’s classmate whose school we visited in Sikkim a few years ago. He was over for a brief visit. With a Buddhist father he knows about intentions and prayers and asked our community to hold his kids in Sikkim in the light, after I had asked for light on my ankle, on Tuesday especially. After Meeting a Feldenkrais practitioner among us set to work immediately with this light and gave my ankle a 10 minute treatment. It felt good until I went to the supermarket for milk and eggs; still, it gave me confidence to take the dogs to the beach while Tessa, Axel and Steve took a Uhaul with all their stuff to Dorchester.

During our Meeting for worship a message bubbling up in our midst was about a Bible passage where one translation from the ancient biblical language had used the word ‘perfect’ while another translation used the word ‘whole.’ The latter resonated more with me, reminding me of a dream I had earlier this week. The dream was about keeping your eye on the prize and jumping, then falling, but staying whole in spite of the fall and trying again. Trying is much easier when you’re whole than when you’re broken.

Contributing to both my stress levels and my sense of wholeness is the coaching program in which I’m enrolled. By the end of February 5 long reflective pieces were due. I am glad I started working on those back in December, as these were not assignments you could complete the day before the due date. Having shipped those off, in time, was a big relief. It keeps me in the running for eventual certification by the International Coaching Federation.

There are many requirements for this program. They include weekly hour-long conversations with a peer group, weekly practice coaching sessions on each other, both as coachee and coach, work with a mentor, 25 hour-long tele-classes, two more 30 hour workshops and complementary sessions of one hour before a final exam, later this fall. Altogether this adds up to many hours a week, but it is worth my while, including the hours I spend on this during the weekend. To my great surprise the coaching training I’m getting now seems to be a piece of the puzzle that had been missing. There is that wholeness thing again. As an avid puzzler I understand about these last pieces that fill a hole and make whole.