Vroom Vroom You’re There

The Ann Arbor Transit Authority, now the Ann Arbor Area Transit Authority, the AAATA, also known, sort of, as The Ride, has tried out some awkward and unfortunate slogans over the years, if my high school memory serves.

I believe Vroom Vroom You’re There was short-lived.

Certainly it was embarrassing. High-school-me is probably still rolling her eyes.

The phrase lives on in my head though, as I think it whenever I work on a project.

Vroom! Vroom! I’m there.

Vulnerability.

I am making peace, slowly, with vulnerability and its powers.

Vulnerability is a door to many beautiful things.

Or as I realized several years ago while naked hot-tubbing with a bunch of strangers in broad daylight a few blocks from my office, because Portland is Portland, you can’t get more naked once you’re naked.

There is a strength in being unhidden.

There is a steadiness in being the person who puts cards on the table.

Visibility.

See also: Vulnerability.

This is also related to the question what needs to be illuminated.

And the principle of Safety First, which is at the very core of the practice of self-fluency.

Verb.

Over the past four years, I [verb]-ed FIFTY ONE Rallies, and never found a verb for it.

I have no interest in being a guru, a leader, in charge, at the front.

I want to be a secret teacher who leads through modeling curiosity and self-inquiry. Using my own practice to reveal some of the concepts, tools and doors that I use to turn inward and get my answers, so other people can turn inward and find theirs.

I don’t want people to think their results are because of me.

I want to create environments and cultures that are so full of safety and sovereignty, magic and play, that people can do their own self-investigation, their own rewriting of patterns.

And instead of thinking this is all because “well, Havi is amazing”, they can see what is actually happening, and be awed by their own playful wisdom.

The magic of Rally, as far as I was concerned is that Rally was the teacher, not me.

Rally verbs itself. Vroom vroom. You’re there.

Voyage.

I like the word voyage more than path.

Voyages are adventures, voyages can change, voyages take you places and when you are done, you are somehow more you than you were before.

How we prepare for the voyage and enter it — enter as you wish to be in it — changes how you experience it.

The other day Kat invoked the superpower of Vivid Voyaging. I can’t wait to find out what that’s like.

Also I wrote this post a while ago, and whenever I have a mostly-written post that I don’t want to send out into the world, there is always a reason. It invariably turns out I needed to wait for a new piece of intel for my words to be ready to be shared.

As soon as I saw the words vivid and voyaging together, I knew it was the right time to reconnect with V.

I am embarking on my own voyage this week, the biggest one: Shmita, and many (six?) months of road trip with the boy, asking questions and giving them to the desert and the mountains and the stars. It’s my time to go be with the void.

And vivid, yes, vivid. That is how I want to voyage.

Vibration.

There are a surprising number of lovely and magical qualities that begin with V, and they vibrate:

Vastness.

Veracity and Voice.

Vibrancy and Vibration.

Visibility and Vision.

Vitality and Vivacity.

Voluptuousness.

Victory.

Veritas.

More V words…

Vigilance. Ventriloquist. Vent. Vapor.

Vector. Velocity. View.

Viable. Vixen. Victuals. Venerate.

Voluminous. Velvet.

Vacation.

I wish I could find my Rally notebook from Rally V, from the year of alphabet rallies, because I think there are many more I’ve forgotten.

The notebook might have fallen into the vortex.

Oh! Speaking of the vortex, as one does…

Would you like to use the vortex stone?

At the Playground we had a vortex stone, of course.

It started out as kind of an inside joke, because we used to have a gigantic blanket fort called Blanket Fort George. Because its name was George.

But also because of this Fort George, and the brewery there makes a beer called Vortex, and it was in that brewery drinking that beer that I had a series of Very Life-Changing Epiphanies.

Anyway, the vortex stone is a very special piece of Playground memorabilia. It symbolizes adventure, the unknown, voyaging, sitting with the stillness of the void and receiving beautiful and unexpected answers that startle you and make you laugh.

The way you use the vortex stone is by holding it in your hand (or imagine holding it in your hand), and saying I am here.

I gave the stone to Lucky Lola, who spent the last beautiful day of Playground with me.

The vortex is the beautiful void that we avoid. Or maybe it’s the door into that. The door that opens when Shiva dances the dance of destruction and deconstruction, so that the new spaces can be revealed.

You sit with the vortex (vortices!), and then vroom vroom you’re there.

Vs

The V is also…vaginal, speaking of the magic of the vortex, and of things that are diamonds and treasure and vestibules and doors and full of sweetness.

Mmmm. VESTIBULE. What a delicious word. A vestibule is both practical and magical. And sexy.

And it can be a place out in the world in a building (external space), or in the body (internal space), and I am very interested in the relationship between internal and external space, and changing one to change the other. That is the essence of what I do. That is my work as a bell, and as a Havi.

And, get this, it is also: “a chamber or channel communicating with or opening into another, in particular”. Uh huh. Is it getting hot in here?

Vestibules also make me think of Chandler Bing, and I’ve had a gigantic crush on him forever.

So it is all about vestibules, and this is how I shall refer to my downstairs bodyparts (thank you, Secret Agent Purple, for that perfect phrase) forever forth.

Vestibule. Yes yes yes yes yes. Mmmmm.

V is other things as well.

V is also 5!

V is also half of a diamond. If you put an upside-down V on top of a right-side-up V, you get a diamond! See? Treasure.

V is fingers saying VICTORY.

V is fingers saying PEACE.

V is also half of a W, if you put two Vs side by side.

V is the bottom half of a heart shape.

V is also the shape of the formation that birds fly in, it allows them to take turns resting. Strongest most capable me to the front of the V while the other parts of me rest!

Rest is the key to getting places.

May it be so! And come play with me.

This has been a meditation on words that begin with V.

If you want to whisper words or sound effects that start with V, go for it.

You are invited to be a dork about words with me! You can also throw more V words into the pot, or peek over here for more V words. Like vacuefy, veilleuse, ventripotent, and volitorial.

And of course, if you want to share in any of the qualities and magical words I named here, help yourself.

They work like the salves in the Friday Chicken: there is enough and there is always more.

Whispering loving spells that begin with V, for myself, and for anyone who wants…