When the sh*t hits the fan
Life is an interesting game. There we are, going about our day to day, doing our best to mind our own business, working through our extensive to do lists, when out of nowhere, your best laid plans turn to crap. There’s a saying – “life happens when we’re busy making plans” and that’s certainly my experience of rolling with the punches.
Thing is, I love to think I’m in control – moving the pieces of my life into a tidy picture and slotting my own jigsaw pieces together to form the picture that best suits little me. But, as I’m busy planning, I am aware that life is fondly amused (convulsing with laughter!) that I’m so disillusioned as to believe it’s all up to me. Because that’s the thing, it isn’t! Life, strangely enough, has a Mind of it’s own and certainly knows what’s best for us mere mortals. And take note, I say what’s ‘best’ for us and not what’s ‘preferential’.
Down here on Earth, with our limited perspective, we’re somewhat shortsighted when it comes to evolution, growth and what it means to ‘live’. We were somehow duped along the way, being led to believe that life should deliver us fluffy bunnies, rainbows and our ideal gifts wrapped in gold (more to say on this later). Life, being life, is unpredictable and wants us to experience the full spectrum of human experience and, newsflash, that means that it isn’t all roses. Who knew. Life is sticky, life is messy, it trips you up, it’s unexpected and stuff happens that we simply didn’t make allowances for – people disappoint us, the house falls through, people get sick, the job doesn’t pan out, the project you poured your heart into turns to dust – whatever your experience of ‘crap’, that’s life. And more often than not, it comes in spades!
So, what do we do with this? Should we feel sorry for ourselves? Fall into victimhood? Wonder why life is smacking us around the chops – for have we really been so awful? Or, do we (and here’s that word again) have a little faith and understand that life is just doing what life does – it happens. It’s giving us life experience and more importantly, ways to grow as we learn to keep our feet on the ground, ‘dance on a shifting carpet’ and stand in the eye of the storm.
It’s never what happens to us in life that matters, it’s how we deal with it. We always have options when dealing with the unexpected – heartache, illness, disappointment, betrayal and any other type of ‘mess’ that comes our way. Unfortunately, sometimes, we’re just in the sh*t. Whatever your particular brand of crap looks like, you’ll get through it. You’re human and will feel human emotion and that’s more than ok. FEEL it. You do not need to smile when your heart is aching, but at the same time, hold true also, that life is always on your side and there is light on the other side.
This brings me nicely to my reference above to ‘gifts in gold’ – sometimes life gives us some gifts wrapped in some very unappealing and odd looking wrapping paper, but no matter how ‘awful’ something appears, if you look hard enough (and sometimes you need a bloody powerful microscope and a bit of hindsight) you’ll see the gift eventually. Everything that happens to you gives you an opportunity to grow yourself as a human being and for you to evolve… if you’ll just be open enough and willing enough to allow the beauty of life to show up in all it’s guises and surrender to the Mind that’s running the show.
We need to be flexible enough to weather the storms. Move with the wind, go with the flow, surf with the tides – allow yourself to stand strong and surrender to the elements, surrender to that which is out of our control. Take a tip from nature – just like the magnificent trees – be flexible. Find your strong roots and allow yourself to bend, not break.
And again, trust. Trust that you are never given more than you can handle. No matter how ugly the wrapping, no matter how rotten or stressed you may feel or even how much your heart aches, there is always calm after the storm. Find your centre. Trust. Have faith. Know that life has your back and there’s always a bigger picture at play. You won’t always see it from here, but that’s the meaning of faith – it will become apparent eventually, just as sure as the sun will make an appearance at some point from a dark and brooding sky.
And lastly, in the words of a somewhat unlikely guru, Sir Mick Jagger says it perfectly – “you can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need”. Each of our lives has its very own symphony, may we all hear our own specific music and learn to dance with life.
To your Evolution!
Emma