Sometimes, Strangeness is a Place I Lean Toward*

This title caught my eye from one of my favorite poets, Maya Stein*. 
 
In reading it and reflecting on it, I became aware of feeling awkward and strange in my own experiences, and how in those moments there is so much life! And yes, sometimes, strangeness is a place I lean toward!
 
For example, I engaged in a conversation with a complete stranger, the bus driver taking me from the Charlotte long-term parking lot to the airport terminal.
 
One of my mentors, Michael Mervosh, (click hereto learn more about Michael Mervosh) even encourages us to put ourselves in moments that feel awkward or strange, so to create space for Mystery and the Unknown. The mystery, or the unknown, holds vitality, life and energy! When we stay in our mundane, rote lives of sameness, we lose a certain amount of energy and it can easily be recovered in the spontaneous Mystery of Life. Often times we feel awkward, strange or uncomfortable in the unknown, because of just that, we don’t know– we don’t know what will happen next, we don’t know what the other person is thinking, we enter moments of literally not knowing. So much of our lives centers around knowing, and needing to know answers, that we forget about all the possibilities not yet known in life, inside our self, and inside others.
 
So then it becomes valuable, and even essential, to lean into awkward and strange moments, especially if they are strange due to being something not yet known to ourselves. 

In my example above, I flew to New York for an opportunity to teach in a facilitatorship training this past November (click here to learn more about PSEN). I decided to drive to Charlotte and do long-term parking at the airport. I waited for the bus to pick me up from the parking lot and drive me to the terminal. The bus arrived and I climbed on. I was the only one riding. I sat down close enough to be able to converse with the driver, but not too close, keeping my distance. Being a friendly driver, he struck up a conversation with me asking where I was headed. I told him NY, and he decided to share how he used to go fishing in NY. I could have left the conversation there. I’ve only been fishing a few times in my childhood and it doesn’t hold that much interest for me. Plus it was a really awkward moment trying to get through the bus and airport process, talking with a stranger, in addition to preparing for a new teaching opportunity. 
 
In that moment, I chose to lean into the strangeness of the unknown and the mystery of being human with some curiosity. I asked him who he went fishing with. He launched into an interesting story of him and his friends going from New Jersey up to New York for fishing trips and what that meant to him. He asked me if I knew anything about fishing and I said no, not really. Yet in the meantime my interest was being piqued simply from his enlivenment about the subject. He explained to me about different types of lines and hooks and what they were for. I don’t remember the details, but I remember how much I enjoyed our contact and conversation. Life and energy flowed through me in a renewing fashion because I leaned into the ‘strangeness’ of the spontaneous mystery of life in front of me.

The line in Maya’s poem reads:
“…Sometimes, strangeness is a place I lean toward, an alien continent
I travel to when my own geography rubs its too-familiar elbows at my ribs…”    
(Click hereto read other ‘ninja’ poems, her weekly poetry practice, written by Maya Stein.)
 
I read these lines to mean that sometimes our “own geography” -what we know about our self, our own inner landscapes- rubs, and rubs again and again with a pointy elbow at our ribs. It can be painful to feel stuck within our own inner terrain, our own geography. And I interpret it to mean that the spaces of Unknown can often times feel like entering an alien continent.
 
It also feels important for me to say that just because a particular environment is where we originate from (our home, our culture, etc. ), it does not mean that that is who we are. Your past environment is where you came from, and you are now free in your own becoming. 
 
“Sometimes, strangeness is a place I lean toward!” I encourage you to join Maya Stein, my mentor, myself, and others, and lean toward strangeness, specifically the strangeness and awkwardness of the Unknown.
 
Doable moments of strangeness:
           -make eye contact with a stranger and smile
           -strike up a conversation with a stranger
           -try something new that you’ve always wanted to do
                             (ex. guitar lessons, singing, macrame, dancing, painting).
 
Many blessings on your strange encounters in the Mystery of Humankind. May you be pleasantly surprised!   
                                                                        

Written by Janet Wepner