"Mental Agility"

 

• “Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't so.” 
• – Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book

I can not remember a time where I was not worrying about someone or something.  I mean that seriously.  If I had to reflect on my adult life, I would say the onel thing I had wished I had more of is...Courage.  I wished I had had more courage.

From the day I was aware of my surroundings,  I worried about many situations that I had no control over and of course, I was too young to understand what anxiety and worry really meant but I knew I was experiencing it.   I worried about my father, my mother, my grandmother and my sisters. It was not until recently that I realized that worrying has caused me so many issues and has impacted so many of my decisions, it would make your head spin.  I have felt the pain that has manifested from those who are close to me and as upsetting as that has been, I would not and could not change a thing.  

I've realized that change only occurs when someone absolutely, unequivocably knows they have to change. They have legitmiate fear of loss.  This can be health related or perhaps they are fearful of losing a relationship or anything else they hold dear.  This is when change occurs, not before, not after...fear manifests change.  I know this to be very true.

Throughout June, July and August, King and I have been watching out our backyard a number of families...two turkey families, two deer families and many, many rabbits.  Each morning as I woke, with the help of our beasite kitties, Leo and Luna, I witnessed that strength and that resolve of the animals raising their young.  Through the summer, I witnessed the protective behavior and then the detachment and I realized that the detachment was the most important thing the mothers of the deer and the turkeys would do for their young.  Now in September, they all have gone their way and I have learned more about living having observed them.

I believe that from this juncture, we need to pause, almost on a daily basis and live in our present moment.  No one situation lasts.  Everything passes and resurfaces and passes again.  If change is necessary, then we will know sure enough of when we need to proceed.  LIke the seasons, people experience their own personal seasons and the trick is to enjoy the transition. If that is not possible, then we need to accept the changes regardless of how we feel. That is the secret to finding more peace.

And so, as the sun is setting on King's Mountain, and the wildlife has decided to begin an alternate journey, I believe that we all have begun our own, individual new journey.  For that, we can be grateful and for that, we can look at the world with a more compassionate lens.