Keep Calm and Defy Gravity

Guest Post: Defying Gravity

The following is a guest post written by a good friend of mine from college, Marie C. Sakai. She drew her inspiration for 'Wings' from the song 'Defying Gravity.' Marie is an amazingly talented artist, writer, and above all else, a wonderful human being. She is an editor for All Things Healing and teaches art to children in Oregon. Check out her personal blog and her Facebook fan page. Her above illustration, "The Illumination of Energy," was published in the Fall 2010 edition of 'Touch Magazine.'

Wings

When will your wings dry my beloved? When will you fly the sky again across moon beams and pyramids and find yourself in love again with the world you came out of?

When will you soar the sky, take a quantum leap into the world farther than the eye can see and the ear can hear--farther than anything else my dear. How far will you go how far will you come? What is that you have been longing to undone and what is it you have been longing to do inside of me and you.

Where are those wings now? Furled and encumbered, I know it true. But don't worry my child, my love, My beloved you'll start happening too.

You may not be able to defy gravity yet, but you know that would be the perplexity of the whole thing definitely. You may not be able to justify what and why things happened to you--but I'm not interested in the why, I just want to know what your soul feels like when it soars that sky so blues, so augmented hue of greens, that you fly the sky far away that you go where you soul leads you to stay. I want to know what happens when you go--what happens when you know all the souls that go with you-are drying their wings too.

mcs

Inspiration

As an avid fan of musicals and a victim of dysautonomia, I was of course an instant fan of the song 'Defying Gravity' from Wicked. It appealed to me on so many levels. Seeing and hearing it performed live perched atop the balcony at the Paramount Theatre was a cathartic moment in my life. Six months earlier, I was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a type of dysautonomia. For those of you unfamiliar with the illness, it involves the malfunction of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS): the part of our body that is responsible for regulating involuntary functions like heart rate, respiration and blood pressure. In other words, it regulates the things we cannot control. POTS, more specifically, is the body's intolerance to gravity. Upon standing, my heart rate increases dramatically while my blood pressure simultaneously drops causing extreme lightheadedness, fatigue, and rarely, fainting. The simple act of standing or sitting upright throughout the day--something most people take for granted--is a major feat for me. Everyday that I wake up and keep going I am truly defying gravity. And I remember the song, repeating the lyrics silently to myself like a mantra:

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!

It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!

I'm through accepting limits
'cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!

I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down