DC in Limbo

Washington DC felt slightly more at ease today than since the shutdown, even though the guy who self immolated on the mall died today. Probably that is for the best.

But - Saturday is a day people are used to not working. A normal pattern felt better than weekdays with everyone off work. Today was hot, hazy, muggy, and the air smelled sour. Hard to imagine how it could have been different. People were out and about, nevertheless. They had to get out there. Me too. Life goes on.

I saw a very large bird circle high above the Eastern Market metro station this morning. I tried but was unable to bring it into focus with the camera. Eventually I gave up and just watched. I saw it circle overhead two or three times, then with one stroke of its wings, fly off to the east. It was elegant, graceful, huge. It may have been a very large hawk. It might have been an eagle. It was big, and it radiated grandeur. Whatever it was, and even though I was unable to take a picture of it, the graceful circling of this magnificent bird inspired me to take a big step backwards from the issues at hand. Instead of trying to tease apart the details, I was inspired to take an eagle's eye view of the situation.

What came to me is that this stalemate was inevitable. We've been headed straight towards it, through impasse after impasse. Sometimes a hard restart is necessary. Those words echoed through my head all afternoon. Sometimes, a hard restart is necessary.

So true.

In the last week I've visited the Apple store Genius Bar four times. During the third visit it was determined that my hard drive was toast. On my fourth visit, I picked up my computer with its brand new, shiny hard drive. Ta-da!

It's astonishing how much better my computer runs now than it ever has. I bought it last February. For the first time in my 30 years of owning Macs, I was disappointed. I told my sister this was the first Mac I've owned that felt kind of cheaply made. What I'm realizing now is that the hard drive was funky from the get go. It was a lemon. When it gave up the ghost, it was for the best. It runs smoothly and quickly now, without a hitch, with the new hard drive.

I could never have planned the death of my hard drive to coincide with the government shut down. No. That is not possible. However, synchronicitiies like this are part and parcel of the shamanic lifestyle. I am woven into the energy of Washington DC at a rather profound level. It's alarming!

Life goes on. We will slog through the hard restart, we surely will. May this situation clear the decks for a better process from now on. May the government restart be as successful as the replacement of my Macbook Air hard drive. May it be so!

Shalom.

Praying for rain.