Emotions Are Relative To Where We Are Now
There are times when the same situation is viewed from a different position in life with a different state of mind, all by the same person can seem like either a blessing or a curse.I will give an example of a lesson from my life concerning my nearest and dearest that illustrates this perfectly.
My grandson Jake was 9 months old at the time. From birth, he had an odd-shaped head which at the time everybody assumed would come right with early growth and development. At least that is what I had assumed hopefully. Picture after picture appeared on social media and it seemed to me to be getting more misshapen instead of less and being strange, with the usual British politeness, totally ignored. I was obviously focusing on it which is never a good thing. Obsession is never far away from an excessive focus on any matter
Eventually, my son and his family visited us and I just came straight out and asked the questions that it seemed all were waiting to be asked and answered. This seemed to surprise them a little. As it turned out, they had made tentative inquiries and were awaiting follow-up appointments. They were very interested in my thoughts as they felt they were too close to Jake to be objective about his head. Love can be beautifully blind. From the moment I asked I sensed I had released some sense of freedom to talk about it and it seemed everybody then wanted to discuss Jake’s beautiful little misshapen head. The weight of opinion was that it was such a shame and a terrible thing to happen to a baby. No argument from me there. Jake’s head had become a major concern for family and friends alike.
Subsequent events put this into perspective as you will see.
I will now show how that changed in a brief moment. Upon visiting the pediatrician concerning Jake’s head the doctor was prompted by his intuition to examine Jake further and to cut a long story short he discovered a cancerous tumor on Jake’s liver.
Jake’s head was forgotten for now. And to this day I have not heard it discussed.
The curse of Jake’s misshapen head had become the blessing that had led to the discovery that would save his life.
I write this day after Jake has undergone extensive chemotherapy and eventually a liver transplant (incidentally! Smiling constantly).
Nobody can know what might have been but one of the many lessons here is to always accept the way things are wherever that may fall on the scale of our current perceptions. What is “now” is all we have and is accepted as a blessing as the reality is that our lives can get better or worse. There are no guarantees. This is not to say we can’t act to improve and progress our situations but that acceptance of the way things are now is the starting point.
Wishing that life was other than it carries both possibilities and what you get in life is relative to your perception. I think it is okay to want more whilst accepting life now. Another of life’s many paradoxes.
One meal a day in our lives would signify hell on earth for many unless choosing to fast intermittently but the choice is there to feed regularly. Some would say too much. I agree, but my point is that millions of people on this planet would consider one meal every day the most wonderful blessing. Our lives are dependent on our situations (environment) and our state of mind to appreciate how blessed we are.
This is one of those moments when the often repeated and generally empty-worded cliches take on the real meaning when used in the right context and not spouted randomly. “Count your blessings” is one such cliche. The truth can be tangible when we have emotion-laden experiences as evidence of the wisdom contained in words.
Gary Walsh – Adam Senex -x-
HUMAN EXPERIENCE 