A world-renowned veterinarian, who speaks a wide array of animal languages, including Dodo and unicorn, starts off from his home in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, England, in search of the Great Pink Sea Snail. The Great Pink Sea Snail is an amazing creature you could actually ride inside! In his adventures, the vet and his friends meet other amazing and exotic creatures like the Giant Moon Moth and the Pushmi-Pullyu. I am referring to Dr. Doolittle - my favorite movie as a child. I saw the film when I was just five years old and it has remained a favorite film; a delightful mix of fantasy and reality. I’m pretty sure the reason I’ve always loved it so was because I’ve never been a big fan of cartoons and animation. I like to watch “real” people and animals, albeit the Dr. Doolittle story is much more fantasy than reality!
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But I don’t know why my favorite animal was the Pushmi-Pullyu. If you’re not familiar, the Pushmi-Pullyu was an imaginary creature resembling a llama or an antelope, but with a head at both ends. I have often felt like the Pushmi-Pullyu in my life. Being pushed one way and yet pulled in the opposite direction at the same time. Feeling as though my heart is being pushed and pulled in two different directions; not quite sure which of the two directions to follow, or which area to put my full energies to. I have a sneaky suspicion that I’m not alone in feeling this way. It’s interesting to note that in extended usage, the name ‘Pushmi-Pullyu’ is used to mean something which is ambivalent or incoherent. Wow, that’s not how I want to live this New Year, or start this new decade!
While I have no desire to continue the Pushmi-Pullyu dance of life in 2010, inevitably that’s what winds up happening – pushing some things away and yet pulling some things closer, all at the same time! The problem is that the Pushmi-Pullyu doesn’t get anywhere. With all the pushing and pulling, the Pushmi-Pullyu winds up right where it started because the pushing and pulling are too deeply entwined.
Life is indeed a dance. It is a dance of balance, of follow and lead, of spin, bow, bend. But perhaps it’s time to drop the Pushmi-Pullyu moves and try something new. It’s the dance that includes letting go before grabbing on. After all, from my life experience, I know it to be true that one can only hold as much as one is willing to let go of, in order to make room. What a great time for making room – the New Year.
And here we are on the first Sunday in 2010. In the Christian calendar the Feast of the Epiphany will be observed on Wednesday, Jan. 6. It will be the "Twelfth Day of Christmas", the last official day of the Christmas season (and you were breathing a sigh of relief thinking it was already over). Prepare yourselves as this is the day when your true love gives you "twelve drummers drumming"!
The epiphany comes from the biblical story familiar to many. It is the tale of the wise men, or magi, and it speaks of an awakening. Epiphany means the sudden realization about the nature or meaning of something; a sudden intuitive leap of understanding. For our lives today, epiphany is an ‘a-ha’ moment in our journey. Each year of our life offers us a new stretch of road to travel and the opportunity to experience epiphanies. Some of those epiphanies may arrive through much turmoil and struggle, crisis and loss. And some of those epiphanies may not seem so sudden at all. But we can’t experience the epiphanies in our lives if we choose to live as the Pushmi-Pullyu. We are guaranteed to miss the epiphany if we live with ambivalence or continue the old, familiar dance of push and pull; grabbing without also letting go.
I encourage you to spend some time in these first few days of the New Year pondering these questions: What new epiphany is waiting to be realized in your life right now? What do you need in order to reach out and grab what’s waiting for you? What do you need to change or end in order to make room in your life for the new to emerge? What do you need to let go of?
There is joy in the dance called life. May you find that joy, let go, grab on, and be blessed with epiphanies in 2010!
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the Pushmi-Pullyu was an imaginary creature resembling a llama or an antelope, but with a head at both ends. I have often felt like the Pushmi-Pullyu in my life. Being pushed one way and yet pulled in the opposite direction at the same time. ..................well now, there's an easy solution to this. Since Pushmi-Pullyu is imaginary - - give it WINGS! Then it can easily rise above things and be able to see both where it's going and where it's been!
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