“It’s a bizarre but wonderful feeling, to arrive dead center of a target you didn’t even know you were aiming for.”
– Lois McMaster Bujold
Earlier this week I saw this post, Arrival, in my drafts and felt a nudge to revisit it. I started this post on 19 May 2020, so in six months, it’s been more than sufficient time to forget what prompted me to write it in the first place and where I was aiming to go with it, but I do remember some of the points and feel certain that as I write, more will come back to me.
I just put in the Blu-Ray of Arrival for a little noise while writing. The film begins with a voiceover, “I used to think this was the beginning of your story…”
I didn’t get very far, and I can’t remember if I got distracted or simply lost the flow. The post would have been published between Meditating with the Birds (17 May 2020) and We Are Not Helpless (28 May 2020).
After revisiting those posts and reading the content, as well as noticing today’s date on a liturgical calendar, I understand why today makes sense to write this post. Timing.
The following (aligned right) is what I had in draft:
Arrival.
The film, Arrival, based on a short story, “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, has been stuck since I was stalking the American Goldfinch for a picture or two. I kept thinking, “Come back to me” which reminded me of a line repeated throughout the film by Louise Banks, the main character played by Amy Adams.
I have yet to read the short story, which from what I understand, will unlock another level of interpretation.
When I watched Arrival for the first time after it was released, I was sucked in because of linguistics and communication.
Advent.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, which in Christianity leads up to Christmas. When “advent” isn’t capitalized, its definition per Merriam-Webster is “a coming into being or use”. (Note: I wouldn’t have known Advent has started if some of my friends had not posted about it today.)
Sometimes an arrival is known, and we anticipate it. Sometimes we countdown to it, such as using an Advent calendar. Sometimes we watch a shipping tracker to see a package’s progress to delivery on our doorstep.
Sometimes we don’t know something is on the way, and when it arrives, it seems like it’s “all of a sudden” or a surprise to us, much like the dreamcatcher from instaheather.d. The dreamcatcher was already on its way to me from Heather even though I didn’t see it coming.
Sometimes you don’t know something has been in the works until it’s here. Its arrival. I wrote it a couple days ago in another post that “sometimes we have to change our perspective. Things aren’t always what they seem… sometimes we have a limited view…” I already feel grateful for everything that is yet to come, the advent of what I don’t see coming but am creating by letting my light shine.
It’s All Coming Back to Me
Arrival
Where I left off in my draft, I had just written about communication and linguistics. In Arrival the characters were trying to communicate with aliens to understand the purpose of their visit, but even when they discovered the aliens wrote in non-linear orthography (as well as having non-linear thought and time), they had the challenge of vocabulary. A word’s definition relies on its context as well as the nature of the conversation and the perspective or expectations of the message’s receiver. Louise Banks saw possibility and held a more optimistic expectation of the aliens. Other characters were less willing to take a chance or be open to possibility because from their experience and perspective, they expected the worst from the aliens.
“Never waste your time on trying to explain who you are to people who are committed to misunderstanding you.”
– Dream Hampton
From Louise’s perspective because of her interaction and communication with the aliens, she stayed on her path and redirected her time and energy to resolving matters on her own instead of wasting more time trying to convince others to believe her.
The Dreamcatcher
Heather mentioned that she bought the dreamcatcher at a festival more than twenty years ago. At the time she didn’t have anyone in mind to give it to but felt that she would eventually “just know” to whom it should go. After some of our conversations about dreams, particularly disturbing ones, Heather felt called to send the dreamcatcher to me. I feel grateful for the arrival of our friendship after decades of being acquainted. To us, the timing makes sense.
One of the tags in my draft was “ojibway” because the dreamcatcher came with a card describing the Ojibway tradition and beliefs about dreams. I felt amused because my only knowledge of Ojibway is Shania Twain, whose birth name is Eilleen, but she chose Shania, which in Ojibway means, “I’m on my way”.
I’m Still On My Way
When I participated in the Thirty Days of Thanks in 2012, I did not foresee how focusing on gratitude would change my mindset or how I live. The beginning of my Facebook Note, Month of Thanks, reads: “I really don’t say ‘I’m thankful’. I don’t have a god to whom I give thanks, but it doesn’t make me less thankful than anyone else. So in this month of thankfulness, I say thank you directly to all the people who make a difference in my life.”
I didn’t see the target of a mission or purpose of my life. I didn’t see a staircase ahead where I would have to learn to choose love over fear in order to take each step.
At the time, I didn’t know I arrived at the beginning of daily gratitude for the past eight years or how it would improve my relationship with the world and the people in it.
I didn’t see that daily gratitude was also the advent of learning and practicing compassion, empathy, kindness, and love or that it would call me to use storytelling, humor, or music to be a light and help others shine theirs.
I didn’t see what would come back to me from a rain tree in India and revisiting the common root of world religions. Or that this year I would arrive at a better understanding of grace, mercy, and forgiveness.
I didn’t see that in December 2013 I was already on my way to letting my ego fall away when needed, so I could arrive at a better future or that the timing of forgiveness would reconnect me to the root, the oneness, the universal spirit of Love. The target I didn’t see because I didn’t know it was there.
‘Whether you believe in God or not does not matter so much, whether you believe in Buddha or not does no matter so much; as a Buddhist, whether you believe in reincarnation does not matter so much. You must lead a good life. And a good life does not mean good food, good clothes, good shelter. These are not sufficient. A good motivation is what’s needed: compassion, without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their rights and human dignity.”
– Dalai Lama
Luceat lux vestra.
