A lesson for today – at least for me. I am guilty certainly of being foolish, feeling more than is good for me (sometimes I see the world only in primary colors, which can give you a migraine after a while), suffering my losses and not acknowledging my wins. There are days when I cry over nothing, my emotional strength sapped and my ability to get out of my way completely ineffective.
Conversely, when I am wrapped in joy – as one would be a really fabulous terry cloth robe – I don’t think about it as something to cherish, to protect or celebrate. I delight in the moment, and do little to protect it from the harsher judgments that may later follow. My friend Lori calls it the little green monster that jumps up and down on her shoulder, whispering the words of self-doubt and harsh judgments that can force us into a box we don’t want to enter. I love her visual – and imagine that mine is more like a hyperactive Captain Hook (parrot included). Regardless – they do the same damage – not just to your shoulder, but to your psyche.
What saves us from ourselves? The delicious reality that we are – all of us – silly, frightened, impulsive sometimes and thoughtful other times, heroic in our hopes and dreams and timid when taking our first steps in a new direction. We break – our exteriors not necessarily reflecting all the cracks that we have re-glued and secured with sufficient emotional scar tissue.
As I have written about protecting the child within us, so too must we tip our hat to the wondrous fool that should not be silenced, or diminished or devalued by our ever-present voice of ‘should have, didn’t, and can’t’. Would we react to our days differently if we cherished the fool with the same reverence with which we listen to our Capt. Hook? If we remembered that both sides of who we are are of equal value and worth?
Waiting for the Karma Truck 