Struck by Lightning

Beate Brigid Schilcher

by Beate Brigid Schilcher

Story

In 2005, Chris hikes up a mountain and returns as a different man. On the hike, he gets struck by lightning. Theoretically, a decent exit for a man who has up to this point lived what we could label “Mission Accomplished: A Life Well Lived”. He has found his calling and a fabulous reputation as a top winemaker. He has traveled the world and found love. He’s a husband and father. His soul lives on solid spiritual ground, and he is a pillar of his community. Quite a guy to hang out with. Stuff that Chicken Soup for the Soul stories are made of. What a great obituary it could have been!

Chris survives. As his good friend Jerry might say: There was more in the cards for him. This is my personal reflection on the “why” and the “more”.

Getting re-set by lightning, being “pruned to the core” and finding your way back into life, makes you rethink about what you really want the rest of your journey to look like. Lightning to help heal, redefine direction, create new momentum? What falls off can be left behind. Dead cells from our bodies, dry leaves from a tree. When lightning strikes, it can be your exit or a chance to live up to the highest, best version. As the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi says: “The wound is where the light enters”.

Kintsugi, as you know, is the Japanese philosophy of repairing a loved item by purposefully highlighting the cracks in solid, precious gold. Don’t hide what’s broken. Celebrate the learning, the gain from the process of breaking, mourning and healing. It’s the cracks that make us whole and alive. It’s the cracks where the Gold of our Soul may shine through.

Up to his enlightening hike, Chris has been experimenting with a certain grape on a certain vineyard for a number of years. Searching for excellence while creating award-winning wines for renowned labels of the region, his day-to-day job. Yet, there’s always a voice inside urging him to make his very own wine. Two years after the hike, he fulfills his dream.

I’m no wine expert. But this is what I understand: The harder the roots work for water, the richer the palette. The more thoughtful the pruning, the higher the quality. The deeper the roots, the bigger the soul of the wine.

With his shell cracked open, Chris has dug as deep as it gets. He has a story to tell. He lives to tell his story. He tells it in his very own language. That language is wine. He names his wine AD VIVUM. That is AD, “toward”, for direction. As long as we’re on our journey, we are always going somewhere. Even when we are lucky enough to find a sense of belonging and home, we are constantly growing, pruning, striving for something better. VIVUM is Chrissish for the marriage of wine, Latin vinum, and to live, vivere. Simple and to the point. The core, the soul, the bliss. Nothing to be added. Nothing to be taken away.

I don’t intend to promote a label. I’m telling this because Chris’s story is OUR story. It reminds us of the eternal life that shines through our cracks and carries us through. Life writes the best stories. We all have our own label. We all have a story to tell. By making our design decisions, this story is visible inside our homes.

Step #14 = TELL YOUR STORY

© Beate Brigid Schilcher 2022-06-24

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