Shelter in Place – Cathy's Blog!

When I was invited to make a Happy Birthday video, I found myself at the overlook for the Golden Gate Bridge welcoming the sunrise. The bridge looks so stable from above. It is stable and yet I’m reminded of May 24, 1987.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the bridge was closed to traffic and opened to walking. My youngest son and I were there early for the event, and received a piece of the banner as it was cut. As we started across we met people coming from the SF side. Because we were first, we got through easily and walked along the bay through the city to the ferry building. Returning on the ferry, we were shocked to see the bridge flatten out. No one expected 300,000 people to show up and meet in the middle. It was claustrophobic gridlock. For us on the ferry, it was slightly unnerving to see bridge without its curve, and clearly it didn’t fall.

Yesterday in a Sensory Awareness workshop, Misty Hannah led us with the image of bridges, the bridges within us, and the bridges connecting us. I saw suspension bridges in Nepal and another saw stone bridges in northern England. It was an invitation of exploration.

What kind of bridges swing or hold steady within us and between us? Where do we find support?

I thought of the game Chutes and Ladders, visualized and felt an up and down flow within.

Misty shared with us a tribe in Mexico who greets not with Hello, but with “Are you here?” or “You are here.” They may add “How is your heart today?

How is your heart today?

When I ask myself how my heart is, I feel a swing of response as my lungs move in and out, responsive beacons of support.

I feel fluidity in my spine, a bridge connecting head and sacrum.

All of this flows through me today as I wake in the dark, the moon still shining in the sky.

My son and his wife got their long-awaited rescue greyhound yesterday. She is a beauty, small and young. She was never on the track and naturally is her own self so she is different than their first rescue greyhound Senna who passed away last year.

I’m so happy for them and for her. Bridges of love and connection brought her to them as she was rescued from Florida, and brought to Denver, and now she is here in their home, her home. Her track name is Rumor, but they have named her Ebi because she is small.

Beauty and Love. Bridges of connection. My heart is full.

Last night word in the “hood” was out. At 8:00, go outside and howl, and people did, and it was lovely, lively, fun, and inspiring. We couldn’t see anyone. It was dark, but we’re not alone, and we live in community, and we love to howl.

Let your voice be heard in all its curves, high and low and in the cracks and through the seams. Howl! Be the wolf and the coyote. Get together, though not too close, and howl!

My husband and I are beginning to get on each other’s nerves. Three meals together every day is lovely at first, and for a long time, but yesterday I found myself reading an article on how the astronauts on the space station deal with enclosure and isolation. They’re chosen for it and trained. They have tools, ways to release, though no one mentioned howling. I’m wondering if gravity affects the howl. It must join in as a companion when we howl on earth, I’m not sure how it reverberates in a container in space. Instead, writing poetry came up as a way to go within and release when confined.

My sage advice for today is write a poem and Howl. Think of Allen Ginsberg and his poem “Howl”, and let go. He had to grow and develop the breath to write and read those long lines. Do the same. Play with the length and strength of your breath. Be the Howl because it appears social isolation is here for awhile, and when, it’s over, imagine how much we’ll love to Hug, and place our voices together and dance knowing we’re in this together. We are one Tribe!

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl