*This Brambled Life…documenting my life in the Woodlands, Summer of 2025. This essay is written in a reflective, metaphorical way, capturing the currents and undertows of my summer.
Greetings from the Woodlands,
This summer has been a bit of a rough storm at sea, rising waves washing over me, undertows pulling me under, forcing me to navigate mostly alone. Yet through it all, I’ve learned so much about life and myself. What I’ve carried from this stormy summer is a lesson in beauty. The beauty that lives inside us…the quiet, steady force existing beneath the surface, sometimes breaking into powerful, overwhelming wave crests, and sometimes lying hidden deep below the water’s surface.
We know that joy is contagious, but I’ve also learned that stress is too. It spreads like ripples from one person to another. The way we carry ourselves through life’s ebbs and flows touches others more than we realize. But it’s not about putting on a brave face to make someone else comfortable. It’s about tending to our own currents, navigating the storms within, asking for help when needed, and doing the deep inner work so we don’t unintentionally pull others into our undertow. It means letting ourselves feel the waves and allow the dark clouds and rain to pass over us. This summer, I’ve tried to steady my breath and float until the waves carry me to shore. It took patience and many quiet moments sitting through the heavy downpours.
I’ve spent more time indoors this summer, partly because of a few health challenges and partly as a retreat from the turbulent pressure of the outer world. This strange new world we find ourselves in, what I call the Big Ugly. I wanted my personal living space to be a haven and a reminder of the constant undercurrent of beauty and joy in the world. There was a lightness in this simple task of remaking my living space this summer. My two lifelong passions converged in a playful, profound way. One is the study of the literature, music, and history of the 19th century…the pursuit of knowledge and invention at a grand turning point for humanity. Through this historical lens, it’s like peering through a porthole to watch the seeds of consumerism and human ambition ripple forward into today’s unsettling tidal waves. My greatest lifelong passion is Star Trek, a vision of hope where curiosity, intelligence, and compassion guide us toward something better, a ray of light suggesting a different trajectory. So, I went boldly into this space, where past and future fuse like rivers flowing into the sea of my joys…a playful creativity where Jane Austen meets Spock. A fusion of my favorite things, where the past meets the future.
A happy memory in my life is being an innkeeper, living and working in spaces brimming with florals, color, and quiet, bright currents. Those days deepened my love of the 19th century as I wore vintage dresses, read Jane Eyre, and immersed myself fully in that world. When I looked around my current home, it had become minimalist in shades of brown, beige, and tan. It was calm, but it did not express my inner joy. For my August birthday, I made a wish list. I was windswept by the gracious gifts from my favorite people, waves of florals in pillows, bedspreads, curtains, lampshades, and many treasures from thrifting. These delightful things are symbols of a deeper gift, the beauty of the people who joined in this little dream, creating my space alongside me. Now, when I look around, each tangible piece is a reminder of their love and of the beauty that surrounds me in my home and in my heart. So, in the midst of the stormy summer was this lifeline of beauty both in my physical space and the love of the people that helped me create it.
What this summer has been about is navigating the tides, staying afloat, and riding the currents. Through it all, by swimming through my feelings and having the courage to face them, I have discovered that beauty is one of the most important things in life. Beauty lives in the eye of the beholder, so what does your eye behold when you look outward or inward? It is a delight to be an explorer of beauty…to boldly seek out strange, new, beautiful delights in the world and within yourself.
Exploring beauty can also be about finding the gems in others. There is so much beauty in our differences, like an octopus shifting colors in the reef, mysterious, fluid, and unexpected. There is a soft beauty lying within each day, each person and each experience.
I don’t usually talk much about the outer world, but we’re all experiencing it together: the intense ugliness, the shadow of beauty, the storm before the calm, the overwhelming tide before the sun breaks through. It’s time, I realize, to flip the narrative I’ve been telling myself. I’ve been adrift in this sea of overwhelm, and I know many others are out there too, clinging to their own life rafts, treading water against endless waves. Some moments feel jagged, like scraping against hidden coral beneath the surface, sharp, wounding, unavoidable. Other moments shimmer like sudden flashes of sunlight across dark stormy waters, small gleams that keep me afloat and remind me that land still exists somewhere beyond the horizon.
Out on that ocean of this summer, I discovered something about joy, too. I learned that it doesn’t arrive authentically until I’ve passed through other emotions first. Joy comes from fearlessly riding the waves of fear, anger, sadness, confusion, even despair. To avoid them is to deprive yourself of the pearl hidden within, the mystery of life’s ocean. Only when I let the waves crash over me did I find myself carried closer to shore, to that joyous destination that makes life so beautiful.
So, not to get lost in my oceanic metaphor, but this summer, I felt adrift in a sea of overwhelm. I didn’t get rescued, neither did I drown. I let myself float, letting the waves take me where they would. I neglected some things, the ones that weren’t important and perhaps needed to be neglected, so I could find my way back to the beaches of safety ...to rest my bones again, to recharge from this storminess. I stayed present, riding each wave as it came, letting it curl around me, pull me, toss me, and then release me.
Now the waves have carried me here, to shore. I lie on the sand…seaweed tangled hair, little sea creatures skittering off of me, the taste of salty water on my lips, the sand clinging to my skin. But it’s okay because I have landed into the joy of being alive and the beauty I see around me. The seagulls cry out a cheery chorus as they swirl above me. I look up at the blue sky, clouds drifting, the warmth of sunlight, and sensing the moon, the stars waiting their turn. I’m struck by the beauty of this planet, this one wild and gentle life I’ve been given. A laughter swells from deep in my belly, rising like the tide, spilling out into the air, waves of joy rippling through me, the undertow of grief now transformed into playful currents.
Lying here on the beach, finally, I unclench my fists and find beautiful seashells resting in my palms. I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding them so tightly, or that my hands were clenched at all. All this time, the gems had been with me, beauty, glimmers of hope, the unseen hands of loved ones carrying me here, ‘not alone!’ and only now do I see them.
And of course, just as the sweetness of this moment settles in, an intrusive thought surfaces: What am I going to do now? But then the answer rises just as quickly: it doesn’t even matter. I’m here. And that’s all that matters. It’s like tasting Turkish Delight for the first time, tasting the aroma of a rose, subtle and surprising, catching beauty in its most delicate form. This one life we get, however long or short, is like a fleeting sweetness you have to notice before it dissolves.
The waves, the currents, the undertows, the hidden reefs, I’ve navigated them all. And now I’m here on the shore, soaking in the sun, laughing with the tides, embracing the sea of overwhelm that carried me to this moment. I wave goodbye to Poseidon as he turns back into the sea. And it dawns on me: all the dark storms of uncertainty are just part of life. My wish is that when the waves of doubt and chaos sweep me away, I’ll let them carry me instead of fighting so fiercely. I’ll pause, float, and even take moments to find laughter, beauty, and joy as I stop to share a cup of tea with Neptune, listening to whatever wisdom he has to offer during these stormy passages of life. In doing so, I notice the jewel of the sea in this time, the tiny lessons, the little gems I’ve been holding in clenched fists, now resting safely in my open hands. I land on the beach, finally present, finally aware that life’s currents carry both struggle and delight. And the rest of the adventure? As always, it is yet to be seen. And to remember: We are here together.
I bow to your beauty,
Wu
P.S. Ginger tea might be just the thing for poetic seasickness… which you may need after sailing through my ocean of metaphors. Maybe I owe you a Woodland Ginger Tea! 🍵🍂✨😊
Here is my Star Trek altar on top of my wardrobe. It’s a fusion of two of my favorite interests, Star Trek and 19th-century history. I hope it makes you laugh or smile…that is its intent. It fills me with deep joy when I walk by or gaze upon it. One of the gems I hold from this summer, the seashells I mentioned that rest in my hand, is being less afraid to express who I am. I love how old Baroque frames hold these characters of the future, and it brings me a kind of existential comfort. Isn’t it wonderful that we can create spaces that reflect who we truly are and nurture this kind of joy? I think we shouldn’t be afraid to express who we truly are.
🐭🦊🦝🌿🍃🍂🍀✨😊💖
Thank you for wandering through the woodlands with me!
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Steampunk merges with Spock..."Fascinating"
I love the melding of Jane Eyre and Spock! Invoking your two passions feels like it has let something very true emerge. I can't wait to hear/read more! 😊