How Ground One Was Born

After the 9/11 attacks in New York City and my home base of Washington, DC, society focused on “Ground Zero” and the repeated, horrific media footage that symbolized it. I felt they were missing the point: The world as we knew it was forever changed, not destroyed. Each ONE of us was being called to step up to refashion this new world.

In 2002, hoping to bring a fresh, more balanced perspective to the fear-based threats and epithets being exchanged between American and Arab society, I began my novel Incongruent, focusing on the similarities instead of the differences between cultures. But then my own life’s infrastructure suffered traumatic blows.  As the new millennium grew from infant to toddler to preschooler, I drove countless hours to care for my dying parents.  My soul sister died within months of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I was also grappling with my own dodge with melanoma. Then, just when I was joking that there was no one left to lose, I came down with the disease that killed my father.

In 2007, I sat in a surgeon’s office listening to her tell me that the only resolution to my life-altering digestive issues was a colon re-section.  “Better to do it now before you perforate,” she said as though she was telling me to put bread on the grocery list. “No,” my heart resounded. “I’m not having surgery yet.” Six years later, my colon is still intact, but my soul has changed, mainly because I finally listened to it. I now treat my body as a temple, instead of some roller derby car. I get enough sleep, I eat right, I drink lots of water, I exercise religiously, and I take some key supplements.  I set goals, but I also set boundaries. I meditate. I pray.  I use my intuition. I feel that every atom in my being has died, and every atom has been reborn—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I was forced to learn to ground and balance myself in this new world order. I experienced very own personal Ground One—the universal became personal, was digested and processed, and then was made universal again.

I created Ground One from this perspective, to serve as an alternative to a zero sum mentality that is prevalent today, and to find solutions that will change the equation to result in much larger, even infinite, sums. Ground One is a verb instead of a noun. It’s about acting instead of reacting.  It’s about looking within and finding ways to make our outer world work again. It’s about spreading our creative ideas like seeds. It’s about reaching out to one another in love instead of blame. I hope my business becomes a forum for all who build up instead of tear down.  If we ground and heal ourselves, we can change the world.

I’ll be sharing the ways I’m attempting to do just that on my blog www.ramspergercommunications.com\blog.