There is a scene in Beth Henley's tragicomedy 'Crimes of the Heart' in which one of the characters talks about the suicide of her mother. In her sweet Mississippi accent, with heart rending empathy, Babe says of her mother, "She just had a bad day. A real bad day." The line is delivered in such a way that the audience wants to laugh and cry at the same time.
We've all had those bad days, when everything seems to fall apart, break down, or otherwise fly into irreparable pieces. When all of our usual coping strategies lead us to 'hit the wall', and overwhelm sets in. Despite our best attempts to make sense of what is going on we just can't. We may find ourselves in a void, a place of fear and confusion, and try to fill it with our old familiar thoughts and emotional memories. Perhaps not helpful, but it is certainly human to feel abandoned, to wonder why this is happening to me.... to try to make the pieces of the present puzzle fit together based on past history. But if we build our present solely upon the past, we only get more of the same.
Carolyn Myss, author and teacher, suggests that the practice of what she calls 'illumination' can serve as an alternative approach that allows for a new outcome. She writes about quieting the reasonable mind that wants answers, and seeking another experience of perception. In Entering the Castle, she wrote, " Pause and observe with appreciation all the so-called small things of the world around you. Put all of your perceptual senses in slow motion.... say 'I am exactly where I am supposed to be. All is as it should be. The divine is active in every detail. Therefore every detail is serving a divine purpose and influencing my life in this moment.'" And then open your intuitive mind, and breathe, and listen in the silence.
The root word in 'emergency' is 'emergence', the process of coming into being. The Japanese symbol for 'crisis' is the same used to represent the concept of 'opportunity'. What opportunity might emerge if we take off the constraints of our past overlays of thought and emotion and simply open ourselves, simply surrender to what is with an open heart and mind. We might find deeper connections, and we might not have to be so afraid of the unknown. We might receive divine guidance, we might see things a new way based on mindfulness, appreciation, and grace.
We've all had those bad days, when everything seems to fall apart, break down, or otherwise fly into irreparable pieces. When all of our usual coping strategies lead us to 'hit the wall', and overwhelm sets in. Despite our best attempts to make sense of what is going on we just can't. We may find ourselves in a void, a place of fear and confusion, and try to fill it with our old familiar thoughts and emotional memories. Perhaps not helpful, but it is certainly human to feel abandoned, to wonder why this is happening to me.... to try to make the pieces of the present puzzle fit together based on past history. But if we build our present solely upon the past, we only get more of the same.
Carolyn Myss, author and teacher, suggests that the practice of what she calls 'illumination' can serve as an alternative approach that allows for a new outcome. She writes about quieting the reasonable mind that wants answers, and seeking another experience of perception. In Entering the Castle, she wrote, " Pause and observe with appreciation all the so-called small things of the world around you. Put all of your perceptual senses in slow motion.... say 'I am exactly where I am supposed to be. All is as it should be. The divine is active in every detail. Therefore every detail is serving a divine purpose and influencing my life in this moment.'" And then open your intuitive mind, and breathe, and listen in the silence.
The root word in 'emergency' is 'emergence', the process of coming into being. The Japanese symbol for 'crisis' is the same used to represent the concept of 'opportunity'. What opportunity might emerge if we take off the constraints of our past overlays of thought and emotion and simply open ourselves, simply surrender to what is with an open heart and mind. We might find deeper connections, and we might not have to be so afraid of the unknown. We might receive divine guidance, we might see things a new way based on mindfulness, appreciation, and grace.
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