Welcome to The Whirlwind

📖📖 My new book, The Power to Choose: Finding Calm and Connection in a Complex World is out now! Get your copy here: https://geni.us/powertochoose

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Welcome to the whirlwind.

You didn’t ask to be here.

But you can’t deny it’s your fault that you are.

You took these little steps, and then some more, and then some more, and then you’re here… in the middle of the whirlwind.

Zorba the Greek might call it ‘the full catastophe’.

Everything is moving so fast you can’t work out what is causing what.

And what’s worse, some people will tell you it’s impossible to know what’s causing what.

In over your head.

Fighting fire after fire after fire.

Wishing for change.

Blaming others for not understanding.

Trying desperately to stay afloat, to find the little moments of joy or pleasure… whilst simultaneously finding it hard to believe that this little snack or that little drink is the easiest part of the day to find joy in.

A little moment of repair… spoilt by the wondering if… if it’s really just a way of numbing the pain, the fear of the whirlwind.

Trapeze to trapeze.

Stage to stage.

Old life to new life.

Old you to new you.

Well, that’s what you hope, if you have done work like I have for a long time.

You hope you’re somewhere in Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, in the middle, in the part you wish you could skip but you can’t… down in the belly of the beast, on the road of trials.

Luke staring up at Darth Vader, mutilated arm cradled, with no way out but down.

Katniss in the middle of the arena, with only death or murder ahead of her.

Dorothy thinking she will never get home.

The whirlwind, whirling around you.

Unstoppable.

Untouchable.

Whipping at your hair, your clothes, your idea of who you are, the edges of your soul.

But your heart is still beating.

Your eyes can still see - and they can still fill with tears.

And you’ve made it this far.

One day, maybe, the whirlwind will pass.

Or… maybe not. Maybe it will whirl faster and faster.

Maybe you’re trapped in it: maybe it’s your destiny, all our destinies, to have little parts of us blown away by the ever-faster wind.

Or maybe you’re choosing to be here, in some way you can’t see. And you could step out any time.

Maybe, like Dorothy, you have the slippers. You just don’t know how to use them… yet.

Maybe the wizard you’re looking up to is just a small man lying.

Maybe no one can save you, but you.

Maybe God isn’t out there, but in here.

No one asks to be here.

Welcome to the whirlwind.

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PS My new book, The Power to Choose: Finding Calm and Connection in a Complex World, is out now! Get your copy here: https://geni.us/powertochoose

This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online.