Recently I wrote about declaring independence in your life and how finding the gifts in unexpected events can be the beginning to your path to freedom.
Freedom is all about perspective. It is about how you look at the world and yourself. It is about how you look at and deal with other people. It is about the general view that you have of everything.
A couple of weekends ago an event occurred in my life that tested this very principle. My family and I were traveling on I-10 just south of Tucson at the brisk speed of 75 mph (as posted) when the semi my husband was attempting to pass suddenly changed lanes. My husband had a choice – allow the semi to hit us or leave the freeway for the desert median filled with gravel, brush, trees, and an overpass. He chose the latter.
As we were suddenly and unexpectedly leaving the freeway I thought, “Seriously?” But my attention was quickly diverted to the upcoming culvert that we were getting ready to drop into. I knew it was gonna hurt. It did. But we kept going as my husband instinctively drove his ass off to get us through without hitting the trees or the overpass and only briefly driving into oncoming traffic. Oh, and he did it without rolling his truck which is nothing short of amazing. I think he may have outdriven the very best dirt track drivers out there. (Thanks honey!) It took awhile, but finally we came to a stop. Nobody was seriously hurt and the truck was driveable to the next exit where we eventually called a tow truck.
When we did finally stop and I realized we were all okay, I was freaking ecstatic. We had made it through what is very possibly the scariest thing I have ever been through in my life. I felt like we had won the lottery of life! And in my opinion we had.
This opinion is my choice of how to perceive and think about this event. I could have chosen to look at it as bad luck, but there was really no point in doing so. What good could come from that?
Instead I chose to focus on the amazing good luck and grace that followed us through every moment of that event. If I didn’t know better, I would say we should be dead. But we aren’t. And that my friends is a reality. It was, however, unexpected and you know how I feel about the unexpected.
So, what’s the gift in this unexpected event? I ended up with a slight concussion and some pretty serious neck and back pain. As a result of the concussion, the following week I was unable to focus on anything long enough to accomplish anything.
I know, it might not sound like a gift, but wait. I had some serious stuff on my to do list that week. It didn’t get done. I tried to work. I really did. I tried to write, I tried to develop a program, I tried to pull together a presentation. But it wasn’t happening. Instead, I spent time doing what I could: hanging out with my kids before they started school, running lots of errands, making phone calls, and doing nothing when I felt like it.
Here is the gift. Reality kicked me in the ass and said, “No. You aren’t going to work.” At first I fought it, I resisted with every ounce of that “I have to get this stuff done” type of thinking. I felt horrible, guilty, angry, and resentful. But then I let go of the thought and realized that “I really don’t have to get anything done”. In doing so, I let go of the resistance that accompanied the thought, “I have to get this stuff done.” In doing so I gave myself permission to just be, to do nothing. And it felt fabulous. In fact, it felt ironically like freedom.
By choosing to look for the gift, I opened myself up to a learning experience that can improve the quality of my life. Oddly, I thought I had learned this lesson already. I take breaks, I start my day by doing nothing. It is only when I literally could not do that which I thought I had to do that the lesson really hit home.
Once again, I invite you to look at the unexpected without judgment, without worry, without fear. Sit back and watch. Wait to find the gifts that lurk in the experience. They are tailored expressly for you. You’ll know it when you find them. They feel like “aha” and they taste like freedom.
Continuing to look for the gifts,
Theresa
Very nicely said Theresa! The mundane and the not so mundane in our everyday lives is where we get the best spiritual lessons…