Lean into the Magic of Connection
Greetings from Topanga! Here is a big and open-ended question to start this love letter. Have you ever wondered about the infinite possibilities of the invisible networks that are interconnecting between different elements of the world?
I set out this year with an intention to embrace more of them. Some of these connections are pretty obvious, like understanding that our family needs to physically build a fire in the fireplace to warm up the house when we wake up in the morning (we were spoiled by the central heating system in Pasadena. We never knew that it required a quite bit of foresight, patience, and skill to keep our house warm). Not everything is a switch of a button away here in the mountains. Others are more spiritual and perhaps require some imagination. One of them is how I feel a sense of deep connection and appreciation to my dad when I work with the soil in Topanga because I know he is farming on the island of Yakushima in Japan, digging his hands in the soil underneath him. I feel a similar sensation to my mom and my grandmothers when I write because they are all writers. It does not feel surprising to me lately that their lineage has led me to become a storyteller.
If we can stretch our vision, the connection can be between anything and everything around us. The moment when two people sense that they are soulmates. How energetic we feel at certain spots in nature. The subtle signs and symbols that keep showing up in our day. The way nostalgic objects make us feel.
My left brain badly wants to manage things in life in a logical, ordinary, and organized manner but I am learning to lean more into my right brain which is ready to soak up all of the possibilities of these invisible connections. It's pure magic.
Hope's story inspires me to witness self-growth in a new way using journaling and vintage photo booth photos. A.C. shares the idea of embracing the "word of the year" - the invisible thread that holds the experience of the year together. Trina shares an idea of "unsent letters to ourselves" as a writing technique and reminds us of the importance of connecting empathetically with ourselves as a part of gentle self-care. I am sharing a story about my relationship with an artifact I hold dear - my 13 years old TN Brown. From a Creative Strategies angle, Frido encourages us to find the younger and playful sides of us to stir up our creativity.
So today, why don't we? We are not isolated individuals but rather a part of an interconnected infinite network. Whatever connection you might find along the way, lean into it and trust that everything happens for a reason.
-wakako
always a work in progress...
Topanga, California // February 7th, 2022
