The Taos Series, Part 2: COACH
While I was visiting my friend in Taos, there was an art festival happening, called the Paseo Project. The program described it as “Bringing the art of installation, performance and projection to the streets of Taos.” It was a night-time only festival with interactive art installations that encouraged exploration and thoughtful expression.
One of the art installations was by an artist from Santa Fe, NM. It was called “What we are/what we could/BE MORE: Words of Becoming”. My friend and I stood in a line outside what looked like an old delivery truck. When it was our turn, we stepped up into the truck and walked up to the pleasant, approachable gray-haired man with red framed glasses and a fedora hat sitting at a desk and sat down.
My friend went first and basically talked with him for a couple short minutes - seconds, even. He then gave her her “word of becoming”. He dipped a stick, a branch from a tree, into a bottle of black paint and wrote her word on a white postcard. That was it. Her word was “open”. In my head, I was like that’s so right on for her! Perfect.
Then it was my turn.
He took a little more time to figure out my word. Perhaps, because I’m not really in a definitive space right now! And then, he said he had it. I was very curious and looking forward to something earth-shattering. As he started to write C-O-A – I had no idea and then he finished. COACH. That was my word. COACH.
I looked at him in disbelief and with kind of an angry edge. This word was supposed to help me figure things out, make life easier, give me answers…this was NOT an answer. This was a joke from the Universe...and the artist!
He gently chuckled, knowing what he had just done. Then he talked about it a little…explaining that it is my word of BECOMING, it is how I can BECOME MORE. I told him in a half-way jokingly way, “I’m not sure I want this word.” He kindly and very gently suggested with a smile, “Maybe you should try to COACH yourself.” We left – happy for the experience, but I was definitely resistant to my word! Cursing up a storm the whole walk home. It's even smeared because I carelessly rubbed it against my jeans.
I’ve done a lot of thinking about this word, the artist, that installation, and myself. No, I wasn’t looking for someone to tell me what to do. I didn’t think this one word would hold my entire future in its letters. I mean, it was a guy in a truck writing words on white paper with black paint and a stick! Or was he?! He had made an art installation on basically listening to people and reflecting back to them what they had told them. He was a psychologist dressed up as an artist!
It was so simple. And maybe that’s how life should really be.
I was looking for signs to help me figure out which way to go next. And, in all actuality, that’s exactly what that word and the artist did.
I’m now coaching myself. I am my newest client. I’m guiding myself into exploring different exercises, ways of thinking, creative outlets, and TONS of writing and journaling (something I’ve missed dearly).
There’s still anxiety and fear mixed in with my daily thoughts and emotions about stepping off the train, about just being, but it’s becoming more about excitement. It’s no longer about just taking classes, and getting the next certification, but becoming clear on what I enjoy most about my life and more specifically health coaching – what I truly love about this path. I want to be one of those people who are so passionate about what they’re working on and where they’re at in life that they can’t even begin to think about not waking up with a smile.