Wandering Around An Albuquerque Airport Terminal
~ Naomi Shihab Nye

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
I heard the announcement:
If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic,
Please come to the gate immediately.

Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.
Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her
Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she
Did this.

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.
Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick,
Sho bit se-wee?

The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used—
She stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been canceled entirely.
She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the
Following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late,

Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him.
We called her son and I spoke with him in English.
I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and
Would ride next to her—Southwest.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it.

Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and
Found out of course they had ten shared friends.

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian
Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering
Questions.

She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered
Sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—
And was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California,
The lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same
Powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers—
Non-alcoholic—and the two little girls for our flight, one African
American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice
And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too.

And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—
Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing,

With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always
Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought,
This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.

Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped
—has seemed apprehensive about any other person.

They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.
This can still happen anywhere.

Not everything is lost.

What Will I Tell My Daughter When She Boils
~ Salma Deera

When your knees turn into belt buckles, let them buckle softly. It is better than crumbling. When you feel like a teapot that has been whistling since 20 BC, take yourself off the stove. Let yourself cool, you do not always have to be boiling. Prepare yourself like you are lemon tea. Whoever said you couldn’t have your cake and eat it didn’t know that it was okay to care about yourself like this. And I will not say it is okay for you to be selfish, because you are not being selfish. It is not your job to be a plate. It is not your job to serve. You are a tectonic plate—you do what you like with your world.

From the House of Yemanjá
~ Audre Lorde

If you are new to working with bindrunes, I suggest you read the introductory bindrune post here, then return to this post to read about this specific bindrune. Remember that working with bindrunes, as with working with any kind of magic, does not carry guaranteed results, and may produce results quite different from what you expect.

Sometimes, life goes a completely unexpected direction. Our carefully constructed plans and cherished expectations are not just interrupted, but completely disrupted. What we thought we knew and could expect evaporate into thin air, and we are left wondering exactly what the hell happened, and what to do about it. This bindrune can help you get your feet back under you and help you direct the energies into a new and positive direction. It won’t necessarily be easy, but it can be done.

Bindrune to Transform Disruption into Opportunity – Hagalaz, Sowelu, Dagaz

Hagalaz (left tile, blue in bindrune): Hagalaz is the disruption—the hail that pelts your crops, the car accident that leaves you without reliable wheels, the sudden layoff from the job you thought was secure. It is the base of the bindrune, as it is the event that begins the process.

Sowelu (center tile, red in bindrune): Sowelu is the light and heat of the sun, which melts the hail. No longer a destructive force, the hail becomes water to nourish the crops and help restore them. The destructive energy is unbound and repurposed to a constructive purpose. Sowelu could signify the insurance settlement that allows you to buy a newer, more reliable, safer car. Sowelu could be the realization that you are done with being an employee, and that you have a great idea for running your own business. Now that you’re not consumed by trying to stay head working for someone else to make their dreams come true, you can focus on making your own dreams come true.

Dagaz (right tile, gold in bindrune): This is the transformation process. This is where the energy shifts from loss to potential, from potential to progress, and from progress to accomplishment. It acts as a funnel to focus your energies, and a filter to remove what is not helpful for you. Dagaz brings the energy to make the push to get through the gate, out the door, wherever you need to go—literally or metaphorically—to make the necessary change.

The bindrune was done in colored pencil. I tried to create it using my calligraphy markers, but the colors became quite muddy and it lost its visual appeal. Looks aren’t everything, but it certainly wasn’t the visual inspiration it needed to be.

You could put a drop of rosemary oil for strength and clarity. You could also use your favorite oil on it to reinforce the energy with your personal scent. You can also use a magical oil, such as a hoodoo oil or other type of specially prepared oil.

Use this bindrune—and all bindrunes—entirely at your own risk.

Theory of Memory
~ Louise Glück

Long, long ago, before I was a tormented artist, afflicted with longing yet incapable of forming durable attachments, long before this, I was a glorious ruler uniting all of a divided country—so I was told by the fortune-teller who examined my palm. Great things, she said, are ahead of you, or perhaps behind you; it is difficult to be sure. And yet, she added, what is the difference? Right now you are a child holding hands with a fortune-teller. All the rest is hypothesis and dream.