Beth Bornstein Dunnington
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A Circle Of Women

February 2, 2018

Something extraordinary at LAX today… (writing this on the plane). I was at the gate, waiting to get on my plane to Portland. Flights to two different cities were boarding on either side of the Portland fight. A toddler who looked to be eighteen or so months old was having a total meltdown, running between the seats, kicking and screaming, then lying on the ground, refusing to board the plane (which was not going to Portland). His young mom, who was clearly pregnant and traveling alone with her son, became completely overwhelmed… she couldn’t pick him up because he was so upset, he kept running away from her, then lying down on the ground, kicking and screaming again. The mother finally sat down on the floor and put her head in her hands, with her kid next to her still having a meltdown, and started crying.

Then, this gorgeous thing (I’m crying just writing this)… the women in the terminal, there must have been six or seven of us, not women who knew each other, approached and surrounded her and the little boy and we knelt down and formed a circle around them. I sang “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” to the little boy… one woman had an orange that she peeled, one woman had a little toy in her bag that she let the toddler play with, another woman gave the mom a bottle of water. Someone else helped the mom get the kid’s sippy cup out of her bag and give it to him. It was so gorgeous, there was no discussion and no one knew anyone else, but we were able to calm them both down, and she got her child on the plane.

Only women approached. After they went through the door we all went back to our separate seats and didn’t talk about it… we were strangers, gathering to solve something. It occurred to me that a circle of women, with a mission, can save the world.

I will never forget that moment.

All the Words

8/23/2019

 
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My friends.
 
This is what I'm thinking about at 4:55 a.m. in Hawai'i, in the dark, with my body having lost all concept of time zone.
 
Tell the people in your life what you see when you see them. One of the best uses of the written word is to speak someone back.

Not just their words, but them.
 
My gorgeous friend in NYC, Deena Levy, a gifted actor/acting teacher, wrote this to me yesterday:

"You so exquisitely live on that edge of pain and bliss, balanced by such gratitude."

That statement not only took me by surprise, not only thrilled me, not only gave me at least two new writing prompts (which I will credit to her), but her words are staying with me today. The meaning of that edge and the concept of gratitude as a balancer, and how we experience the yin yang of pain and bliss.

Which reminds us we're alive. And the intensity - and yes, gratitude - of being seen.

A writer wrote, in one of my workshops, about the difference between saying, "I love you" and "luv ya." It may feel too naked to say the whole thing, to go all the way with a declaration like that, but "I love you" is the much greater offering. There's nothing truncated or held back.

It's 5:00 a.m. in Hawai'i. This is what I'm thinking about in the pre-morning darkness.
 
Words as a gift. ❤️

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  • Home
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    • Class Gallery
  • Waking Up In Hawai'i Blog
  • Bios
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