There are years in one’s life that will most certainly be remembered. 2017 is that year for me. It was the year that everything that I thought I knew was tested. About myself, the people around me, and the systems that I had once relied upon to get me through every moment of the day. It tested processes that I had in place for most of my life that worked and now many of them failed. A life that had been perfected and mastered, broke and failed under the weight of it all. It was as if I awoke one day in January 2017 and everything I had learned prior was no longer valid and I had to start from scratch and learn a ‘new’ thing.
For most of 2017 I felt lost and at times abandoned. The abandonment didn’t come because there wasn’t anyone in my corner but that the ease that walked with me through the course of my life had seemed to leave me at my greatest time of need. The person that I knew of myself was stripped of every virtue one by one. The lack of difficulty in learning and moving through this period unlike many others had seemed to dissipate. Leaving me clueless when lessons seemed harder to get, maintain, and implement.
We read books and hear stories about the hero’s journey and at some point, throughout our lives we realize that we too are on our own hero’s journey. I’ve been on this journey for quite some time but 2017 has truly dismantled the foundation of who I was/am. The slab of concrete that once held my entire belief system in my world rocked to the core as if an earthquake came along and destroyed everything.
To describe it, one would say that walking inside the vessel known as me was like walking around after the quake was over and there was no room to step. No solid ground to stand on. As you began to move all you knew to do was to try and pick up as many pieces as you could so that you had a place to freely stand. One would think that the more pieces were up the better chance you had to be secure but the aftershocks wouldn’t allow for it so you just kept repeating the steps until you no longer had to.
The composure once held, that signaled a dominance of distinguishment now suggests something else. I can tell that I’m being made over and the feeling one gets during this process is to ask, “who am I” meanwhile bricks continue to fall. Oh, you cannot tell on the outside by looking in. Well, on most days and at least that is what I tell myself. But, if you’re in close proximity to me and you have ever studied me you know that something is not quite right.
Ah, but it is. It is quite right. This is the place in between the place. This is where every person who has reached for greatness has been. As I realized what was happening I began to shift my perspective. I started to lean into it as much as I could. Some days I won, but many others the contrast won. I’d try giving in to the fact that I was no longer the master and had found myself in unfamiliar territory trying to swim in areas where the levees broke, and the water was too high. I was being rebuilt and it was exhaustive at best. In previous years I had the focus of a guru and now it was trying just to concentrate.
I was being broken down to be rebuilt to create a new foundation, a new structure, one to hold the new truths, new processes, and new systems for the next life that I am to adventure. 2017 broke the mold in order to get a new one. It offered and marked the end to an era but not without first extending a time of healing from the tearing down and the brokenness that one would feel from so much trauma during any natural disaster.
As devastating as a natural disaster is, it happens naturally and is caused by a need for change, restructure, and newness of opportunity once survival has been obtained. It is like a time of purification. The key is to survive it. Many people can’t get past the devastation of the disaster to ask the tough questions like ‘why’ and “what can we learn from it.” Although I am still learning some lessons from even the earlier part of 2017’s wrath I know how important it was to live through it and to use it as the compass for the next part of my life.
If you ask me what 2017 taught me I’ll tell you quite a bit but to get the full disclosure come back on Monday, January 14th when I will go in full detail. This year, the Kai Mann blog will post every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month. Stay tuned, I’ve got some amazing experiences, thoughts, and ideas that I want to share with you. If you like what you read, do me the honor of sharing it with anyone that you believe that it will resonate with. You can also check out the Kaiology Mann YouTube channel for videos and please do subscribe. I appreciate you and stand with you in the building of your 2018. Let’s get it!
Kai Mann 