Turning words

February 12th, 2008


In 2003 – March 16, 2003 to be exact, because I still have the paper– I drew a Wheel of Life as I described in yesterday’s post. My daughter was then two and a half years old. Under my “Career” aspect I wrote “Power of Pen.” I can recall being uncertain and inhibited about my ambition, but I was asking for something invigorating to come from my writing. I drew a quick sketch of an open book with little squiggly lines and a pen on top. The next day, a former PR client called me and asked if I’d be interested in writing a book with a man whose last name happened to be Power.

I had never written a book. I had written many things – articles, papers, brochures, websites, speeches, business plans – but I had never written anything published in my own name so that I could credibly call myself an author. Awed by the coincidence, I said yes to the invitation. Over the next weeks and months, I met and spoke to a series of people involved in the project so they could assess my ability. It was a very long shot, but each presentation was the opportunity for me to believe my own b-s about myself. In the end, not surprisingly, we didn’t do a book together. But by the end, I knew that there was a book to be done by myself. The little power trip was to empower myself.

This is the kind of thing that comes out of the wheel. Not always so immediately, so glaringly, but in its own time and fashion. Everything, you see, turns on the wheel. Just this weekend as I was fomenting this topic, it came to me how psychically and spiritually powerful the circle is. Familiar with the enneagram? Fascinating. The Celtic wheel? The labyrinth? The bagua? A mandala? We all know the wheel of the zodiac. How about the dharma wheel? And then there’s that little cheerio close to my heart, the enso. The list goes on and on, and it isn’t a list, but a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

It’s your life in motion.

I would write more but I’m already inspired to move beyond. And you are too.

5 Comments »

  1. POWER!!! I have chills, that’s just an amazing message. I love the circle, too. My mother told me she gave me my name because it was “round” (my maiden name is Olson)
    I’m doing the circle!

    Comment by Shannon — February 12, 2008 @ 6:43 pm

  2. Cool!

    Comment by Mika — February 12, 2008 @ 7:59 pm

  3. Yes! Delicious. To motion, circling and spiraling, swirling and learning everyday. Putting aside ego, fear, AND ambition, today I three-hole-punched 205 pages of raw material into a binder. It’s a next step, it’s the wheel turning, and it’s sure to cook up something good. What a relief to stop worrying what it will taste like or how long it will have to bake.

    Comment by Jena Strong — February 12, 2008 @ 9:14 pm

  4. I’ll try it.

    Comment by Shelli — February 13, 2008 @ 2:53 am

  5. I love the labyrinths and the wheels–wheel turning down the labyrinth perhaps?

    Thanks for your inspiration.

    Comment by marta — February 13, 2008 @ 7:38 am

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