An overnight wind storm this past week awakened me with sounds of branches lashing windows and doors while yard debris whirled around outside. Nature calmed down that morning, but left me pondering turbulence. It seems a fit label for the times we are navigating. In the years when I was a frequent long distance flyer, I never really mastered turbulence, but I learned to distract myself by shifting attention with full concentration on some other activity--a word puzzle, a continuing ed article, or breath meditation. Some people seemed to enjoy the thrill of the roller coaster; others sought distraction in conversation. There was no point in anyone trying to converse with me; my focus was one-pointed, a sealed off absorption in concentration mode.
The discomfort of air turbulence is the awareness that you have no possibility of controlling it--the pilots can manage the plane, flight attendants can institute safety protocols, but as a passenger, you let go. Often that means controlling what you can control--your breath, your muscle tone, your attention. Flying then becomes a powerful spiritual exercise in both faith and surrender. You become fully you: a being capable of chosen, conscious activity, simultaneously participating in a larger realm, carried along with others across an expanse of space only partially seen and partially knowable or understood by you. Truly a capsule of Life!
Weather-wise, turbulence remains one of the most unpredictable of weather phenomena--a time of instability in the atmosphere with irregular atmospheric movement, especially up and down currents. The term has now expanded to include a broader sense of "atmosphere" of emotional agitation, confusion, social disturbance and chaos. In the cultural world of organizational and communication theory, turbulence has become a metaphor for new models of understanding and managing disruption in both institutions and relationships. These models draw on the aviation classification of 4 degrees of Turbulence: Light (little or no disruption), Moderate (widespread awareness), Severe (sense of crisis), and Extreme (structural damage--to the plane, or an institution, or a relationship). Quantifying a threat aids in putting it in realistic perspective, allowing the mind to respond more effectively. Unpredictable and controllable events fan human fear.
Yet, we are creative, adaptive and intelligent. Human aircraft design actually uses these same atmospheric pressure principles and up/down currents to lift and fly aircraft. Flight itself is, as professor Steven Gross writes, a "working with" the forces of turbulence rather than fighting, dominating, or cowering from them. This Sunday, consider the turbulence factors in your own life and your spiritual practice that allows you to pass through and soar. (Susan Nettleton)
"Turbulence is a constant element in our universe, maybe the prime element and it requires thought and practice enough so that we can hold it with balance and work with it as a constant part of being alive." Steven Jay Gross, Using Turbulence Theory as a Model in a Volatile World, Temple University. 2016. (slide presentation)
For poetic inspiration, follow the links.
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../AWaveofSea/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../YourBoatYour/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../WhereIwander/index.html