But Wait, There’s More! So Much More!
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
― Roald Dahl
I was a shy little girl of about 8 or 9 with wild, untameable white-blond curls. It was the early 70s and haircare innovators had not yet blessed the world with the gift of leave-in conditioner. My curly, unruly mop vacillated between awkwardly straightened and a feral frizz, a source of many tears and more than a few tantrums.
I walked into the bedroom I shared with my sister, the disruptive, mischievous Pain to my Great One. There I found my beloved Uncle Francis, who was visiting us from England. He was sitting cross-legged in what I now know to be lotus position on top of our pre-war, cast-iron steam radiator in a black unitard, meditating.
Lord Francis Thurlow Cumming-Bruce wasn’t actually my uncle but a cousin multiple times removed, and in this getup, as in all things, he was far from the image one might conjure up of a British Lord with a double-barreled surname. My mother adored and idolized him, thinking him fancy and important. I loved him fiercely but for entirely different reasons.
To me, Uncle Francis was a magical, mirthful, and somewhat mysterious being with a twinkle in his eye and a smile that lit up the world. He lived his eccentric and unusual life to the fullest, serving the British government in Nigeria and as the Governor of the Bahamas and later becoming a practitioner of transcendental meditation and a supporter of disruptive and decidedly anti-establishment movements like the Falun Gong.
At this stage of my life, I had no idea what meditation was and had never seen a grown man wearing a unitard. It would be decades before I experienced either again. It was unusual and unexpected. So much so that I can call up the vivid memory of this moment with ease in my mind’s eye, viscerally reliving the somatic experience of my younger self.
What I remember feeling at this moment was that my beloved Uncle-not-Uncle seemed to know a secret that few other adult humans did. A secret that lit him up and made him glow from within. He believed that life was magic. That joy was all around us always. That our time on this planet was precious and to be spent in curious seeking, meeting all our discoveries with wonder and delight.
Inspired by Uncle Francis and other like-spirited, mad heads I’ve encountered on my journey, I’ve always felt that there must be more. More to life than what most people think.
More mystery.
More magic.
More aliveness.
SO
MUCH
MORE!
Not more in the material sense as most humans seem to define it. I am not one who believes that s/he who has the gold rules. I want to feel more. To experience more. To be more.
The more I seek is a mystical one. One that’s inspired a mythical quest of 54 years and counting.
An epic adventure limited only by my imagination, my curiosity, and my willingness to live in a liminal space between knowing and not knowing.
An apprenticeship with self-discovery that requires dedication and humility and promises riches and aliveness beyond measure.
A curious journey to find more.
I started out seeking answers to questions — so many questions! But what I’m I learning is that it’s not about finding the answers. It’s about discovering new questions.
Life for me is a magical journey of following the tugs of my own curiosity to discover more and more questions. Questions that in turn lead to evermore curious seeking. Curious seeking that brings vitality and aliveness and leaves me feeling like I’ve discovered the fountain of youth. A curious seeking that will continue until I take my last breath of this precious lifetime.
The secret to experiencing more is the practice I call Contagious Vulnerability. Grounded in a mindset of curiosity and humility, Contagious Vulnerability means having the courage to continuously explore myself and the world. To authentically voice and make meaning from my own experience, live as it’s unfolding, in hopes of being of service to others seeking more.
If you have the courage to go on your own epic journey of self-discovery, practicing Contagious Vulnerability with those you meet (including new versions of yourself), you will find yourself and your relationships enriched beyond measure. Enriched with magic, aliveness, energy, and a depth and breadth of emotion you never dreamed possible.
You will discover more and become more. And once you start, you won’t want to stop.
This Contagious Vulnerability Series chronicles my journey during what has been the most transformational and turbulent times in human history. Times that are making personal journeys of transformation universal and universal, collective transformations deeply personal.
I hope you’ll continue to journey with me as I trace the paths of my own experience, sharing insights, inspiration, and tools that I hope will catalyze your own hero and heroine’s journeys of curious exploration and self-discovery and give you the courage to continue when it gets challenging.
So, are you wanting more?
If you’d like a guide on your journey of curious self-discovery, to help you tune into your inner knowing, navigate vulnerability, and experience more aliveness, book a curious conversation. We can explore what the Vulnerability Doula can do for you.