Blessings in disguise

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi ~

There are times when life throws us curve balls.

They come in the form of family members interested in dishing out pain. Blood work saying something has to change. Situations that challenge to the core of our very being.

It takes the life out of us.  I sometimes describe the pain in these ways: as having a knife put in my guts, the air knocked out of me, my joy being stolen.

I feel like I wander around in a daze, unable to put food in my mouth,

unable to move forward or crazed with anger, hurt and betrayal, I have difficulty drawing in my breath.

Somehow I survive these challenges.  I get to a place where my breathing is restored. My belief in myself and humanity are restored.

Through the grace, kindness and support of my friends I pull through the challenges that come my way.

A blessing in disguise is an experience of something we don’t like, and in order to move forward on our journey we have to make a change.  In eating, in relationships, in the way one does things.

A blessing in disguise is a positive way to look at a situation that appears bleak and without hope.  Something can be learned from this pain.

A blessing in disguise means the universe is giving me another chance to get it right.

Blessings in disguise help us grow, they make me let go of whatever crutches I was holding on to and walk…forward in life.

I am grateful and thankful for these experiences, not when they’re happening of course.  When in the process of having karma show me by example what’s not right in my life, just like anybody else, I don’t like it.  It means I am not regulating myself well.

Embarrassing. Painful.

Tree of Life
earth, air, water
watercolor on watercolor paper
11/2012

Framing challenges in a positive way helps me heal and move forward  on my path.

"Yesterday's the past and tomorrow's the future. 

Today is a gift - 

which is why they call it the present."     

 Bill Keane