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"/>Watching My Process re New Zealand - Ann McMaster M.A., L.P.C.

LIFE AS IT IS

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Watching My Process re New Zealand

My time in Christchurch was magical. The people in the Professional Coaching course were awake, committed, open and real. They all knew each other well, being major contributors in one way or another to the More To Life program in their country. All of them had also been participants in the 4-month Coaching Essentials Course last year. So they came to this course already bonded.

Imagine what it's like to do profoundly deep work with that kind of a group. I came home feeling enormously satisfied personally and absolutely connected to each person, as well as hugely grateful for the competence of these folks to make a difference in the world.

Less than 4 days after arriving home, Christchurch is hit by a 7.0 earthquake. I happened to be on a teleconference, and Leslie PIerkowski interrupted our conversation with the news bulletin. My breath stopped, confusion reigned, I couldn't think, my world had just shifted … without my permission, and the polar opposite to anything I would have wanted.  My own internal earthquake, where all that I know was shaken and de-structed, and a new reality took its place. Then there were the internal aftershocks – what about Carol and Clare and Claire and John, and …, and …

Images ran through my head – the first one was Carol, the owner of the house I had stayed in (half of the house was on the side of a mountain, the other half was hung out over the mountainside, supported by beams. The images were worst-case-scenario pictures in my head, which of course were terrifying.  All this in nano-seconds, as my mind clicked through all the people I knew in New Zealand – which ones I deemed as 'safe' because they live in the North Island or were out of the country, and which were in danger because they live in the earthquake zone.

04quake2_span-sfSpan Running silently and shamefully just below those first few seconds was the relief that I had escaped that experience. More worst-case-scenario pictures flooded my mind, all running parallel and submerged – me dying in all kinds of broken ways, seeing sights I wish never to see in real life. Scary.

I turned to the internet, watched videos of the aftermath, sent emails, andImages-1 a skype message to Moana Hodge (North Island), who happened to be online. She and her husband were just leaving to attend a wedding, but wanted me to know that she had connected with many of the ChCh folks, all  of whom were OK, just shaken.

Such an affirmation of the simplicity/complexity of life … weddings and rubble … beginnings and endings … faith and fear. Life as IT IS.

PS The pic above is real.

PPS To date, there are no reported fatalities – amazing.