Life is Life-ing

“Your conflicts, all the difficult things, the problematic situations in your life are not chance or haphazard. They are actually yours. They are specifically yours designed specifically for you by a part of you that loves you more than anything else. The part of you that loves you more than anything else has created roadblocks to lead you to yourself. You’re not going to go on the right direction unless there is something pricking you in the side telling you, “Look here – this way.” That part of you loves you so much that it doesn’t want you to lose the chance to become who you could be. It will go to extreme measures to wake you up. It will make you suffer greatly if you don’t listen. What else can it do? That’s its purpose.”

-H. Almaas
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Unexpected things happen. You got stuck at the draw bridge and are now late, your boss has retired and the replacement isn’t so great, a nail finds its way into the tire of your car and now you need to take care of it.

My friend is walking through some high-stress situations at the moment, and she neatly summarized it as “Life is life-ing right now.”

Life is life-ing right now. ​
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All the hallmark moments— quiet sunrises, graduations, major milestones— those are wonderful, feel-good movements of life.

The eviction notice because your rental sold, the cavity that needs attention, the dog doo you just stepped in— these are the times that really show us who we are, and offer us an opportunity to determine how we want to show up in the world.

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These are also life moments.​
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Things happen through no fault of our own. What is within our own control is how we respond to them.
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Can the problem be face head-on? Solve what needs to be solved and move on?

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Or does it take some hemming and hawing, procrastination, and maybe a little checking out in front of the TV or social media?
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Does the difficult thing feel like a personal attack— why is this happening to me?​
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Or does it feel like a challenge accepted— I’ve got this.

​We can choose to walk through life moments with a nervous system that’s signaling Danger! Or we can look around, control what we can control, and do what we need to do with as much grace as humanly possible.
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Wash the dog doo off the shoe, and move on.

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It’s always a choice how to show up in the world, and if we look back at the past difficult times and the fact that we did get through them, it does help to prove Almaas’s quote. These things are happening for us, not to us.

Maybe the lesson in the flat tire was to slow down. Or perhaps it kept you off the road at a time when an accident was happening.
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Maybe you needed to talk to the person who was waiting in the lobby with you at the dentist’s office. Or perhaps the cavity was a small signal to look closer at your overall health and nutrition before you got an even bigger health issue.
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Maybe the new boss is so toxic because it’s a nudge to look for something new. Or a signal to step up.
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So that’s the invitation for today. Enjoy the hallmark moments, and embrace the challenges.

When life gives you lemons, make the lemonade.