Calypso's Island

I have been thinking on those times in my life when nothing seems to be happening. It feels like I'm stuck, stagnant and stranded, no longer in forward motion. A wise teacher by the name of Jean Houston reframed these times for me, by likening them to Calypso's Island in the Odyssey. What we remember most about Odysseus are his adventures, but if you pay attention to the whole story, you'll find that during most of his epic journey home from the Trojan Wars he was NOT out slaying mythic beasts, but stuck on Calypso's Island. Seven years, in fact! Jean suggested that maybe Odysseus needed those seven years to do his own human homework before he could really go home to Ithaca, to his beloved Penelope and his son Telemachus.

I think that we all need our times on Calypso's Island, times to gestate and do our deep work. The problem lies in the push to always find ourselves on some sort of upward trajectory, on to the next thing. Social media seems to encourage this illusion. We see all our friends portrayed at their best moments, sharing their Instagram snapshots of a perfect life. Of course, this isn't so. Yet, we equate standing still with failure. "So, what's new and exciting?" we ask each other, with the best of intentions. Here, on Calypso's Island, my response today is, "Well, it's Wednesday, isn't it? Isn't that enough?"

As women, I think we should know better. We have been taught by our own menses of the cycles of nature. Doesn't everything in the natural world ebb and flow, wax and wane? Autumn follows on the heels of summer. Winter follows suit. Cycles are as natural as breathing. Yes, I know this, yet I resist. I push for answers. I push for the next big thing in my life. But maybe, just maybe, it is the times when nothing seems to be happening that all the deep work is really going on, the work that matters. I liken it to the cycle of the caterpillar's life when it has spun its cocoon and its caterpillar body literally turns to a "mush." It is out of this mush that the "imaginal cells" (yes, a real term) that are to become the butterfly are forming.

I believe if I resisted less, if I learned to recognize these times on Calypso's Island and say "Ah, so that's where I am" and invite them in, that I'd really begin to embody more of this wild and precious life. I believe that the times between, the times when "nothing is happening" are really the fertile moments. Calypso's Island is the rest between the notes. It is the space between waking and sleeping. It is a resounding "Yes!" sent out for all the universe to hear. Can you join me in my quest to trust the cycles, the ebbs and flows? Can we make it okay for each other to just be "here?" Ah, it's island time again. Let me feel the sand between my toes and re-learn the rhythms of the tides. This is, I believe, enough. And then some.