Perseverance IS a Lesson

Earlier today, I had the opportunity to discuss the topic of navigating when life throws you a curve ball. Perseverance was brought up. Hindsight offering a better perspective than the current reality could was also mentioned. For me, that’s what I call my learning “curve” in life.

If I look back on the moments in my life, I can see those curves in the road. Blind curves that I couldn’t see until I was swinging wide to the right or left. You know. The moments when I think, “This changes everything” or “I can’t see my way out”. Its that free-fall feeling; an anxiety and fear driven uncertainty of what the outcome will be, because I can’t even imagine how it could possibly EVER work out! But it ends up working out in a way that wasn’t even a blip on my imaginary horizon and infinitely better than anything that I could come up with in my catastrophizing “what if“s! Besides, what am I guaranteed besides THIS moment, really?!

If I’m not experiencing highs and lows in life, then I’m a flat line – and everybody knows a flat line means I’m dead! There are those things that can make me lose all perspective – things that I cannot possibly wrap my finite brain around. I just have to have faith that something good will come of it all. More times than not I’m left with faith being the only alternative, with the understanding that when I’ve moved out of and past “IT”, that I can look back with those high definition hindsight goggles and SEE what lesson there was in it all. I mean, if I’m not learning something from all these mistakes then what’s it all for?

My quote of the day comes today from Angie. Throwing her two cents in, she said,

Sometimes there isn’t any lesson … sometimes the only lesson is perseverance.

That has been pinging around my mind all day! Because there are those events in life that I look back on – look for the lesson – and have to acknowledge that while I believe there are no mistakes in life, I may just have to wait until I’m done here to understand why some things happen. And maybe the only gain is a little bit more faith.

I’m still here, which means that the next time I get thrown a curve, I remember that while I may not see the solution, I DO remember this feeling from that last curve and hey! I survived that, didn’t I? Each night is followed by day…each down by an up…and as long as I’m breathing in and out, my life will continue to ebb and flow. 

Reminds me of a post I wrote almost 7 years ago on my first blog entitled “Snow Globe Effect Perspective“

I am one of those people,

when someone begins to speak

mentally “see” my own version of the subject matter.

(I hope other people do that too)

“So what?” you may wonder.

Recently, I was priviledged to be in the company of others

who were discussing the topic of perspectives.

My internal theater screen flickered to life

filling my head with a image of myself,

in the center of a snowglobe.

“Snow” was swirling and circling my head

I could not see beyond it to the world that lies through the glass.

My perspective and vantage point were snowblind

Now the bitch of it is

I’M the one who shook the freakin globe!

I could hear a faint familiar voice,

“…our troubles, we think, are of our own making…”

Yeah,yeah,yeah.

Creating blizzards of emotional chaos

Seems to be a natural gift I have been bestowed with.

Getting out of the way of The Source,

Trusting that It knows the way

out of the blinding storms I create in my little world,

Allowing myself to be led

Despite the fear of the unknown

Confidence that all is as it should be

and will be

And capitulating to this certainty

That is SO hard!

The thematic lesson that keeps thrusting itself into my path?

FAITH

Should be simple, right?

Experience has taught me time and time again

No matter how much “snow” blinds me…

No matter how much I want to manipulate my way into it…

No matter how much I fight…

or conversely want to give in-just give up…

If I just wait-

If I just be still and have FAITH

It always turns out better than I could fathom

Life comes back to me higher

than the limits of my imagination

Only, being in the middle of that snowglobe,

I can’t SEE that

until the I can look back in hindsight.

To sum it up in one neat lil package:

“…cause I gotta have Faith, Faith, Faith…”

::SIGH::

~Me

Namaste,

~me

Pockets of Tranquility

“You owe it to everyone (including yourself) to find pockets of tranquility in your busy world.”
~Georges Bernanos

Dang it!!!

The one day my wardrobe consists of  NO pockets to stash some good serenity in too! Sigh…. Guess that explains the lack of tranquility and utter chaos, huh?!

Namaste,

~me

If Life is Poetry, I’m an Opus

Life is Poetry

from Zen Habits by Leo

‘My life is my message.’ - Gandhi

Each of us lives a life that expresses who we are, reacts to the world around us, shows our passions, reflects our deep river of feeling and being.

We might sing out in joy, through our words and actions and expressions, we might hide in fear and pain, we might lash out in anger. Every thing we do, everything we are, expresses.

Gandhi’s message was his life, and yours is your life. What message are you giving the world, through your actions, how you live, how you treat others, what you accomplish, how you choose to be, every moment of every day?

Are you an angry rant? A ballad? An epic poem?

Perhaps a sonnet, a limerick, a haiku?

If your life is a poem, what do you want it to say? What would you rather leave out? What will the essence be?

Enjoy each moment as the perfect syllable, recognize the lyrical in the everyday, and sink your teeth softly into that cold delicious fruit.

I claim to be an Opus ~ music lyrically written in four parts (epic), which all have an underlying rhythm of laughter and love.

Namaste,

~me

GrAtItUdE

Feeling an enormous amount of gratitude today and hoping that wherever this finds you, in whatever mental/physical/emotional/spiritual state you may be in at THIS moment, that you can look around you and find blessings to be counted!

Moments to cherish.

People to love.

Laughter to be found.

And above all else, a sense of awe and gratitude for the life that only YOU can lead!!

Excerpt from a book I pick up and read…then put down…then pick up again and read something different…then put down again…

Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning the moment you wake up. Through some magic you don’t fully understand, you’re still breathing and your heart is beating, even though you’ve been unconscious for many hours. The air is a mix of gases that’s just right for your body’s needs, as it was before you fell asleep.

You can see! Light of many colors floods into your eyes, registered by nerves that took God or evolution or some process millions of years to perfect. The interesting gift of these vivid hues is made possible by an unimaginably immense globe of fire, the sun, which continually detonates nuclear reactions in order to convert its own body into light and heat and energy for your personal use.

You can’t live without the sun’s inexhaustible flood of unconditional love. Every move you make depends on it. Luckily, it never fails you.

Did you know that your personal star is located at the precise distance from you to be of consummate service? If it were any closer, you’d fry, and if it were any farther away, you’d freeze. ~Rob Brezny, Pronoia

Namaste,

~me

Creepy Fears And A Reckoning

I just had a “family meeting” last night with the kids. A laying down the law, coming-to-Jesus sort of meeting   (a firm, lecturing, no nonsense dressing down, comparable a Fire and Brimstone revival meeting).  After listening to me talk for 15 minutes or so, I asked them,

“Are we clear? Do you understand? Have any questions?”

Son: “So basically the last 14 and 15 years are gone and a new era is beginning?”

Um, Yeah!!

After he left the kitchen and its just me and the littlest talking about some strategies for being more responsible and productive, she glances down, goes white as a sheet and screams,

“OH. MY. GOD!! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD!!”

Instinctively, I calmly and with the “Mom voice” say,

“Look at me and breathe…no, do NOT hyperventilate! LOOK AT ME!! In through the nose…out through the mouth…WHAT is the matter with you?!”

She points down to the floor speechlessly and there is a spider creeping along the baseboard next to the tile in the kitchen. (:O Remember now, this is the same kid who produced this!

In her defense, this was a larger than average spider (maybe a half-dollar sized one? A tad more? I dunno)

Grabbing the newspaper still wrapped in plastic, I walk over to it and “THWUNK!” It is no longer an issue.

“Its just a spider, sweetie – you are 1000 times bigger than it and it was obviously lost.”

Her eyes were bright with a couple of unshed tears and her pupils were dilated until they looked black,

“It was a tarantula, Mom, and WHY WAS IT IN THE KITCHEN??!! WHAT IF THERE ARE MORE? WHAT IF IT HAS FRIENDS??”

“Spiders don’t have social networks – you’re starting to hyperventilate again! breathe!” I said in my most soothing, calm, commanding voice.

“But what if it had BABIES??”

Pointing to the paper on the floor covering the carcass, I reminded her,

“THAT one isn’t going to have babies or do anything fun or social…its little spider spirit has moved on to a better place…”

“OMG! You mean there might be spiders in heaven!?”

“No honey, I don’t think there will be in YOUR heaven…I think your heaven will be whatever you expect it to be … and that would be spiderless,” I reasoned.

“Well,” she said after thinking some more on it, “I want to live where there aren’t any spiders… you know, like Canada.”

Mustering up my serious face, I burst that bubble:

“Canada has spiders too. There isn’t really anywhere on Earth that doesn’t so you may as well make peace with that fact and come up with a plan as to how to deal. Personally, I hate spiders too.”

That got her wheels turning!

“How do you kill them then?! I keep thinking about all the ‘what ifs’…”

“Ok, you need to stop that RIGHT NOW! The ‘what ifs’ will make you crazy and they definitely don’t help. You get lost in the future and that isn’t right now! You need to deal with the reality right in front of you – and right now, right in front of you is a DEAD, non-threatening spider that is going to go away while you look the other way… are you looking the other way? ‘cuz I’m going to dispose of the body now.”

Reckoning. Opportunities. Lessons. Fears. Eternity. Laughter. Love.

And some vicious spider-killing to boot!!

My work here is done.

Namaste,

~me