Sunday Love Note #10: The Lubrication of Emergence
As I mentioned last Sunday, the theme for the month of May is Emergence. Each week I’ll share about things that arise as we step into the newness of being in life or in an area of our life.
Have you caught the glimpse? What’s emerging for you?
This week I went to the Bridgerton Experience, an immersive event where you are invited to dress up and immerse yourself in the sights and scenes of the popular Netflix series.
So, imagine everyone dressed up in period outfits, complete with gilded gold, lace, gloves, ornate hairstyles, and the like. There was something for all the senses – the music, the refreshment, the portrait studio..
At one point, the Queen, in full-show-costume-regalia came out – a caramel-complexioned Black Woman, portraying Queen Charlotte just like in the actual show.
It is not lost on me how the centering of a Black Woman by Shonda Rhimes and her team affects my interest in this period-influenced imaginative world, despite certain historical truths of this time period – but I think that’s another topic.
I attended in full costume also– tiara, evening gloves, and I even blew out my very curly hair into a well-coiffed afro just like the actual actor had in Season 1. (spoiler alert - yes, there's a photo below)
But what does this have to do with emergence?
For the 90 minutes of this immersive experience, I let myself be in wonder, awe and outside of my day-to-day world. To play in the irreverent, to try on other possibility.
What if I wore my hair in a blowout afro every day? What energy does that bring out of me?
What if I was someone who wore a tiara and full-length gloves when I went out – or carried myself as if I was.
The “What If” is a powerful phrase that invites in the imagination, the possibility.
It is the special sauce, the lubricant of emergence.
What If brings us into the imaginal – where we begin to see things not as they are, but we catch the scent of what they could be, and play lets us explore in the body.
There is so much happening in our world. So many things where it seems like play, enjoyment and pleasure is frivolity and wasteful.
Serious times, call for serious action.
I don’t disagree AND…we can become so consumed by the seriousness of the time, the issue at hand, and the complexity of the condition with which we find ourselves that we are spinning in the issue, not imaging another possibility or solution.
This is where play, enjoyment and imagination enter in.
Solely thinking of possibility could be fantasy but play brings into the level of embodiment
I invite you to sprinkle in some play into your week.
Do something that is enjoyable, youthful…for no reason. No matter how big or small.
You could go all full immersive experience, but you could also swing on the swings,
take out that old hobby,
go on a bike ride and get your favorite treat or
go on a play date with a friend.
No agenda, no task – not as avoidance – but as simply…Play.
Don’t worry if this doesn’t come natural to you. It doesn’t for me – try it anyway.
Remember we are in the emergence of something new…the adult mind, needs it to be right or perfect.
The youthful mind wants it to just be.
Let Yourself Be.
And as always..
Let love guide the way,
Angela
PS: Here’s my photo from the evening. :)