'When A Butterfly Flaps It's Wings...'
I was born in Africa, In Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was before independence and my mother was secretary to the governor there, my father a civil engineer was director of public works, building bridges and roads and airports and such constructions through the bush.
My parents life was very social… I grew up thinking that everyone, the planet over, drank alcohol each night, when ‘the sun hit the yard arm’, and so why ever I am surprised by ‘Ouzo time’ here ?!
The story goes, that as my parents were leaving a lively party one night, there were lots of ‘goodbyes’ and ‘thank yous’ going on at the front door of their host and hostesses home… when the hostess suddenly turned to my mother, ‘haven’t you forgotten something…?’
There was then much more laughter… The something that was forgotten was ‘baby me’ asleep in my carrycot upstairs….
So, my reasoning is that in party spirit, if my mother forgot me… Then maybe, just maybe the owner of ‘my abandoned puppy’, really did forget her after drinking too many Ouzo’s the night before at Stefanos Place…
That was his story, and he did seem pleased to see the puppy, which he put in his car, and then drank a few more Ouzo’s…
The attitude to animals, however, is very different here. Two people I called and spoke to about ‘puppy’ (‘we’re not naming her’ Anadi said…) who look after injured and abandoned animals, were full to the brim and said that sadly they could do nothing this time.
They directed me to ‘The Ark’, who were very helpful, suggested I send a photo and a note to them, and that they would do their best… ‘But we get ten to twenty calls a day reporting abandoned puppies’ the concerned and helpful lady said to me.
As we drive along the roads here, we see many dogs and cats roaming about free, they skidadle away, very ‘car savvy’… ‘We are so used now to seeing animals wandering about in the road, that we don’t feel the concern we first did, and we don’t fear they will be run over…’ I said to Anadi.
It is interesting what we adapt to as humans, what we become used to… What bothered us once no longer does; and the animals adapt too. If they are abandoned and survive their young years, then they can often survive, to a level, as strays…
In so many countries, it is not just animals that have no one to care for them, it is children too… I went out to run the penultimate leg, with Chris Rhys Howarth, of his journey across Kenya in aid of the street children.
He was doing work to support these children, to help them have better lives… There are thousands of children on the streets, many of them orphaned, and many survive, but of course do not have the opportunities of realizing their full potential…
There are many wonderful organizations, working tirelessly to support these young lives, to give them opportunities to do so much more than survive…
Every one of us, whatever our circumstances of birth, demonstrates an incredible capacity to survive… an incredible adaptation to stress…
Whatever we have been born into, we all adapt and often our very adaptations we use in our professions or sports…
If we haven’t been encouraged as children, we might adapt by ‘proving to everyone we can do it’, if we didn’t get ‘mothered’, we may adapt by giving the love we didn’t get to others… if we didn’t get our needs met, we might move always to the needs of others.
Of course, we might also adapt by ‘giving up’ through lack of encouragement, and by looking always for love, or for our needs to be met… Because they never have been…
At the core level, neither adaptation ultimately serves us fully, as they are both coming from a unclear place of lack of self love and self worth. They are not emerging from the centre of our being….
They are not completely clear….
If we take some time to notice how we have survived our childhood, whatever our circumstances, we will get some clarity as to what are our adaptations are, and which is the essence of our true self…
I am told I have an energy that is strong and expansive!
This is my energy… When I was running in the past, seeking to ‘be loved’ and to ‘please’ my Dad, my coach, and anyone else who I might please… This ‘big energy’ of mine didn’t flow so well…
From the outside, it doesn’t look much different now…
‘Julia’s gone running…’ for miles and miles…. But now I run because running is what I love to do; back then I loved to run, but I also wanted to be loved and running seemed the way to find this…
Most people on the planet are not sure they are loved, and so are trying to check they are, in so many different ways…
When we know we are loved, we relax and everything changes…
Abandoned animals and children – and children can be abandoned in the most privileged of circumstances, as well as in third world countries and homes that are struggling to provide in the UK, and any country on the planet - are all looking for love and support, and the place to begin to give this to others, is to keep working on ourselves…
To keep clearing all the places we doubt we are loved or loveable, and from this place, who knows what powerful healing will occur…
‘When a butterfly flaps its wings…’ The chaos theory supports the idea that small changes within us, make bigger changes throughout the cosmos…
The puppy yesterday accessed some unresolved vulnerability within me, and sadness…
I don’t know if her owner will look after her, but I do know that I can shift the sadness in me, the part of me that was affected by her abandonment, her vulnerability, her fear…
Change all begins within us…
As Lao Tzu says...
'If you want to awaken all humaity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation'
