Wednesday, November 30, 2011

When Life Gives You Lemons...




Experiences come along and they teach us profound lessons.  What is being learned in the challenging, sour patches of life?  Here's the truth.  There is no sour or sweet.  Our minds, our clever, make sense of it mind, wants to reduce the experience down to something.  Let's not. Let's not distill the experience.  For just like any distilling process, it can make for a very potent, intoxicating beverage that can blind us to the deeper meaning of life's lemons.

Raise your hand if you have received some of life's lemons.  I venture to say that many of those lemons wove some of the sweetest, most poignant, human experiences into the fabric of your life story. 

I am waxing rhapsodic today about life's lemons because I am just a few days shy of coming out of the cast that has graced my left leg for the month of November.  Yes, graced.

I slipped on Halloween Eve and fractured the tibia bone in my left leg at the bottom near the foot.  I knew I needed a break, just didn't know this is how it would arrive.

And the truth is, I have no idea the unending lemonade that will come from this experience.  Too new, too fresh, too physical. There is no expiration date on life lessons. 

This is not at all how I would have envisioned November of 2011.  If I wanted, I could tell you a very detailed story of how this 'break' derailed what would have been a very alive and joyous month filled with adventures, activities and plans.  You see, November is my favorite month of the year and this particular November was chocked full  including my 50th birthday which I celebrated on Thanksgiving Day this year. 

Here is where the 'when life gives you lemons...pay attention' comes back in.  This is not AT ALL how I thought I would spend this month, but the reality is, it is how I spent the month.  A quieter month, a slower month, a physical month, an opportunity to view life from a completely different perspective month. 

I haven't begun to harvest all the graciousness from this experience.  I am aware of a desire to cling to  the what might have been month and the 'loss' of that still feels more sour than sweet.  But I know, with every fiber of being, the unforeseen wisdom, love and liberation that will come from this break. 
Here is what paying attention noticed this month:

the art of breathing
the mind expanding/heart-opening power of receiving - unending, ever-present receiving
solitude
companionship and conversation
food as love
fictional characters make great company
rest is restorative
the power of synchronicity
self-care = self-love
the deliciousness of bathing
the simplicity of walking with two feet on the ground
a 'smarter meter' for exerting energy
the desire to be of service
the love of learning
the wisdom of dreams
the gift of intuition
the fragility of foundation
meditation as medicine
time heals all wounds

Wow, that last one really resonated and the tears welled up and flowed.

Time:  unending, generous, loving, gracious time heals...all...wounds. 

I am grateful for these last few days of hobbling before the cast comes off on Friday.   Like a racehorse running each and every race through sheer instinct and will, I too have been running such races. Through this break, I was hobbled and humbled.  I have been granted the gift of time, to restore, repair, renew.

Curiosity is watching.

I sit in the quiet of my bedroom, with the afternoon sunlight streaming across the keys as I type and I am content.  I am peaceful.  I am home.