In the summer of 2020, when I realized I would start the new school year conducting lessons from a corner of my bedroom, I bought a map of the world to hang as my Zoom backdrop. My goal was to learn all the –stans and their capitals while covering my bare wall.
Little did I suspect that, three years later, I would spend a summer in Uzbekistan (capital: Tashkent) leading professional development workshops for secondary English teachers.
What other latent desires am I harboring? What physical manifestation can I put on my wall or bulletin board?
A distant relative (my sister’s sister-in-law, Robin Winn) is an expert on Human Design. She has written several books and conducts workshops, interviews, podcasts. She recently read my Human Design chart and revealed that I am a Manifesting Generator. What this means is that I need to respond to clear signs before taking action or else my 43-23 Freak-Genius channel causes me to blurt things out, act too quickly, and mess everything up.
My Human Design type needs to wait for a sign. I need to be invited into relationship before my superpower can manifest itself: speaking up for other people through my throat channel. She said I must be still, wait, and gain clear focus before acting. That is the hardest part. I’ve got three weeks before school starts and my head is spinning with To Do items.
My map of the world has fallen down, due to the humidity and masking tape losing its stickiness. An old bulletin board — where I pinned my writing group schedule, comics from the Washington Post, tea bag sayings, postcards, poems, images, rowing medals, my Human Design chart — is now a blank slate.
I’m not good at these in-between moments, but Robin told me, “You touch people’s lives like a whisper.” So I’m willing to honor that stillness and wait.
I guess I have to live with empty walls and a blank bulletin board for a while.
Waiting for inspiration
Eva K. Sullivan 