Oksana Masters, Cycling, Paris Paralympics 2024
"They called me a freak. I didn't want to live any more." https://youtu.be/HdmJvu6XTLY?feature=shared
Stolen moments at home: A beautiful Mom of three offered a sheepish grin while Dad trooped upstairs with the littles to get them off to sleep. "It's my salvation, this hour of the day!" she confided. It was a just a precious moment of peace as the evening quiet began to gather its hushed tones and hues while the ferocious pace and volume of life and all it entails, abated. Home is their Soulscape - that sacred space where Mom and Dad can hold all their own and their children's vulnerabilities and dreams - and escape to recover their center, their best selves, their soul.
This family is not unlike many families I assist - hearts-of-gold, grounded, generous, creative and fiercely courageous families. They are also quite vulnerable. They've had their share of crushing devastation - and their nuggets of pure joy. Some families I assist are dealing with life-threatening illnesses, disabilities, or the brutal effects of racism, poverty, and violence. Some, like Oksana Masters (pictured above), the 17-time Paralympic medalist, was bullied to her breaking point because she was "different." Adopted as a Ukrainian orphan, finding "home" was paramount.
Home is a Soulscape. One thing that binds us all is this sense that Home represents protection, safety, inclusion. It is our connection with Love, our life-force, that grounding place where our deepest loves and outrageous dreams all come to be held with lightness of spirit and gentle reverence. It's where we steal those tender moments of solace and rest, of shared laughter and tears, where our courage is rekindled, and our soul can rest. It's where we find the courage to begin again each day.
How can returning home day after day, touching home-base, re-entering that cocoon of safety, vitality, and warmth extend to the whole, the wider "We?"
Beyond the solid financial investment of owning a home, people who love their home are more likely to spend significant time there with family and friends. They are more likely to get to know their neighbors, to trust others beyond their own family unit, and participate in community gatherings and initiatives that benefit the wider "We." They are prone to love and care for their homes with ongoing improvements, raising everyone's quality of life - and their property values - in the process. They are prone to care for others around them. Others are treasured for their uniqueness. They invest in the whole.
Homeowners are also often outside, enjoying time with their kids in the yard or cultivating their veggie or flower garden. They practice gentle care of the Earth, recycling, composting, practicing eco-awareness for land, water, and air, to benefit the land, their families, and the whole community. And when holidays, life events, or family celebrations roll around, they are often hosting everyone with hospitality and warmth, their creature-kin usually in the mix. Their circles are wide. And it all starts at home, with a wider "We" than our own family units.
The wider "We," after all, makes all the difference. The Paralympics are just winding up in Paris in 2024. (Photo: Indian Preeti Pal celebrating her bronze medal in Women's 100m) https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/09/04/g-s1-20639/paralympics-india-bronze-medal-preeti-pal-track-and-field)
I am over-wrought with tears of gratitude, awe, and unbridled joy as I witness these indescribably courageous, inspirational, hard-working, exemplary para-athletes from all over the world come together to compete in events I wouldn't dream of trying. https://www.paralympic.org/paris-2024/sports And their stories of overcoming adversity, exclusion, barriers, bullying, and hatred are beyond inspiring.
Here are some images from the games:
B. Hatz, Long Jump
Ezra Frech, High Jump
Chuck Aoki - Rugby
Aurelie Aubert - Boccia
Muhammad Noordin - Shot put
Takayuki Suzuki - 200m
Rugby, cycling, swimming, track and field, archery (check out Matt Stuzman, photo, left) - all these are extremely demanding for athletes who train every day at a grueling pace, most unleashing their different abilities - blindness, muscular impairment, limb deficiency, and a host of other challenges - to the astonishment of their teammates, competitors, and the world. Take the time to read their stories, and get to know their names. https://www.paralympic.org/en/paris-2024-paralympics/athletes
Even though they do not receive the notoriety, endorsements, and commercial accolades as their famous Olympic counterparts, their outstanding achievements reflect the best of our shared humanity. Almost without exception, every athlete who completes their event or receives a medal in a competition is quick to acknowledge, embrace, and offer thanks to the wide, wide circle of support they have at home, people and services who make it possible for them to function every day as independently as possible, and to achieve success as a world-class athlete. They bring to the forefront of our attention how much work we as a global community still have to do to make the world accessible and inclusive on a daily basis for the wider human community, and how it will take everyone to make it feel like "home" for all of us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfJOy3gGhD8
Now, blow it out to the even wider "We." When our human community begins to include, nourish, and truly embrace the best of our diverse humanity, we can begin looking out for the wider "We" of the larger community, that great big Web of Life of which we are part.
"Home" = "Creation" for ALL our relations. This "We" includes all our creature-kin and arbor elders, fascinating flora and fauna, pure, refreshing, life-giving water, majestic mountains, magnificent caverns, hillocks and prairies, forest wilderness and jungles, rivers and wetlands, scintillating fresh air and non-toxic soil that provides habitat for this gorgeous, biodiverse planet. It is OUR home. "WE" all need this place for our common survival, for our World-Soul. We humans cannot steal it for ourselves alone, nor monopolize, commoditize, consume, and waste precious habitat/home that belongs to the wider "We." Vulnerability is not exclusive to humanity, nor is strength born of diversity and the indomitable will to live life to the full.
If you need a moment of quiet to process this concept of a wider "We" while the posthuman world rages on, by all means, steal on home, the "most excellent place of all." https://youtu.be/m0TfR9mgOiU?feature=shared
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