The Connecting Thread

It is Saturday and we are going on an Adventure Day.

The Adventure Day is one of the Bridge-House traditions. Once a week a woman holds space for an outing and has the opportunity to create something that she wants to explore with the Women of Earth.

This time we went to Rio de Janeiro, a first time exploration for most of us. Danielle, the Spaceholder, had been thinking about this day for the entire week and had been sharing some of the things she was planning. The main one, it seemed to me, was to go on the Bondinho, a cable car that would take us to Pão de Açúcar, one of Rio de Janeiro's iconic sightseeing places.

Once there, I realized that Danielle has huge Fear of heights to the point that she kneels down on the floor completely frozen. As she was going to the Bondinho, she asked for someone to be with her while navigating her fear and staying present in her body. She did it, breathing in and out, with Vera holding her hand and speaking with her so that she would be present while doing this edgy experiment that was freaking out Danielle’s entire system. This was happening with people around us, with the other women taking pictures and talking to each other about what was present for them at the moment.

This is my culture now. Being around women that feel what they are feeling when they are feeling, that ask what they need when they need it, that create an adventure day around one of their biggest fears. This is the culture I am living. This is my culture.

Along with other women, we carved space for our culture in every moment of that day. I remember looking at Eithne at some point after she said she looked like an old man with her sunglasses. I jumped up and said what I was really seeing: “Eithne! Those are your scientist sunglasses, when you look through them you are activating your exploration powers!” She stopped, looked at me and said: I love how you turn the Ordinary into Extraordinary.

I was so blown away by that.

Afterwards and waiting for the other women to come out the bathroom, Eithne and I carved a space where the physical space we were in did not matter, just the space we were carving, the one where I was loving her and she was loving me. And how I love that wild, wild Life Scientist. It is possible to create my culture no matter what the circumstances are and where I am.

Saturday we kept on carving spaces while we were shopping clothes together, clothes for Eithne that had just made the decision to stop wearing black and become more radiant. Each moment would create a whirlwind of Love and Joy that sucked each Woman to the next Extraordinary space.

I was sucked into that space of Archan relating when Lisa-Maria boldly said: “Sónia, you are hiding behind the clothes you are wearing, try this!” I experienced so much love flowing from her, I was so touched by her commitment to my radiance that all I had in me was “yes”.

Dress after dress I kept navigating the fear of getting old, of not being pretty anymore, of losing value because I am no longer on my 20s. And every time I would come out of the dressing room the women would just start cheering and saying that’s the one, or no, no way, that is not it. There was so much love pouring out of them and I kept on moving from I am old and ugly to I am so loved.

In one of the last shops we went, I had already stopped looking for things. I had a dress, I was glad about it, and that was it.

— “Sónia! Where is Sónia? Sónia!!!”

— “Yes?”

— “Here, try this.” Vera hands me a dress.

When I looked at that dress, I just thought, how can this woman know that this is me? Me the Being, not me the Box. It is the most Extraordinary dress that I have seen in a very long time.

What I am saying here is, that this is not really about dresses, or Bondinhos, or going to the beach and having a swim. It is about carving a particular quality of space together. It is about loving each other so much that we carve our culture together, through the reactivity, the stories, the emotions, the ego-states.

We do it.

We keep on doing it.

As right now, sitting here on this table, writing together about the legends we have to share about each other.

I love you. So much.