Kickin' Ath

I worked like a dog last week getting ready for a big event that the Lucy Daniels Foundation sponsored this past Saturday, our inaugural lectures on "Potential Space," the first one titled "Art as Healing & Healing as Art." Each year for this lecture, we're going to pair a creator of things and a psychoanalyst. This year the creator was Thomas Sayre, local and world-renowned sculptor, and the anaylst was Salman Akhtar, MD, also a poet and of Indian descent.

Each day last week I worked until @ 7:00 PM, drove home to tuck my kids in bed, then continued working until about 10:00 or 11:00 PM when I fell into bed, to begin the routine in the morning. This year, I'm the director and the assistant so I get the pleasure of hosting the event, hob-nobbing with the big dogs, welcoming the audience of 120 + people, handing out honoraria checks, etc. you know-director-level responsibilities. But as the assistant, I was responsible for putting together all of the packets, printing the name tags, and keeping up with over a hundred details involved in making the event happen. Anyone who has done any type of event planning (personal weddings included) knows that the devil is in the details.

So the week went pretty well...David and the kids even had flowers delivered at work last Thursday. The card read, "Sarah, Kick ath...yeth! We love you! -David, Grace, & Johnny," and each time I read it I think of the young woman who had to write out the card. It makes me smile. The flowers themselves make me smile too.

So the week was chugging along and by all accounts I was kickin some major ath. Then I woke up Saturday morning with a headache from here to Montana. One that made me sick to my stomach. I started the most important day of my career thus far vomitting in the bathroom thinking it was going to be impossible to pull it together to finish the 75 things I needed to get done by 12:00, not to mention have the presence of mind/body/spirit to stand up and do the welcome and introductions. David told me that he'd help in any way possible. He told me that I could overcome the headache/upset stomach if I just relaxed and really set my mind to it. I was a determined little bird and had no other choice but to buck up and deliver. I left the house at 7:30 AM (not to return until 11:00 PM), and drove to work praying, meditating and listening to
number 10 on the Garden State sound track. Over and over and over and over. It has a very calming effect on me.

It was the most remarkable turn-around that I've ever been a part of. I pulled it together and by 9:00 AM I was running up and down stairs handling all the last-minute details like a champ. So what happened? Do I believe in God? Yes. But I also believe in myself a great deal and can't help but wonder that when we pray to God to help us get through this or that, could we really be chanelling profound energy from within our own deepest, highest spiritual states? Did I just suggest that I was God? I'll leave you with that to chew on for a bit.

If Saturday had been any other day, I would have stayed in bed and felt miserable all day. Instead, I rightly earned another feather in my cap in the spirit of "whatever it takes." By all accounts, I kicked some major ath.