Marney's Musings:
Love Her Realm
Artellagram 4-27-13
What an interesting year 2013 has been! In mid-December, I had a spinal tap as a diagnostic procedure. I was told to be on bedrest for 24 hours. Due to unexpected complications, I was flat on my back with a debilitating headache for close to four months. It was such an unexpected challenge, especially to arise during the holidays, and only in the past couple of weeks am I finally upright, feeling great and slowly building back my endurance. I'm so grateful for the entire Artella Team for all the ways they helped things run smoothly in my absence.
This experience was easily one of the most intense personal experiences of my life, and I'm still learning so much from it. When something so unexpected comes our way, it is easy to ask, "why?" In an effort to stay positive, we might try to "look for the lesson" or see what we are supposed to gain from this experience. While this approach is certainly more positive than simply succumbing to pain and despair, constantly "looking for the answers" can lead to its own set of emptiness. I remember the moment when I realized, while "looking for the lesson", that maybe, just maybe, the true lesson was that I needed to stop looking.
In the ARTbundance™ approach, we often play with words to help our clients and students find new layers of insight and understanding in any given situation. One of the words that came up for me during this extended period of "bed-blessed' :-) was overwhelm. One of my passions is helping people -- especially creative entrepreneurs -- move past their sense of overwhelm to see the ease and joy in creating their life's work, and yet, here I was, face to face with overwhelm in perhaps the biggest way I had ever experienced.
When I played with the word, a la ARTbundance, I found great peace in this new phrase:
love her realm
I instantly breathed a sigh of relief in realizing that if I looked hard enough, I could find the love in any realm….even in the midst of very difficult circumstances. Whenever we hear ourselves thinking or saying the word "overwhelm", we can just offer a moment to welcome in this new invitation -- love her realm -- by simply asking, "where is the love, right here?"
While I have much to assimilate about my experience these past months, one thing I know for certain: I know that I learned to stop "looking for the lesson" and to do my best to look for love, instead.
I am reminded of one of my favorite stories I've shared about Kai, which some of you may remember reading before: when Kai was two, my family was in the car, and, as toddlers are prone to do, Kai was in his car seat repeating the same made up words over and over. In an effort to get him to move on to another 'tune' :-), my husband Tony used the often-successful tactic of distracting him with a question completely off the subject; one that Kai wouldn't know the answer to, but that would quiet him for a few moments while he thought about it. So Tony asked him, "Kai, what's the meaning of life?" and I barely had time to chuckle to myself before Kai left us breathless when, after only a moment's pause, he said outright:
"Da meaning uv life is…I love you. Dat's da meaning uv life. Uhhuh."
Tony and I looked at each other with tears in our eyes, incredulous. From the mouths of babes, for sure…
May we all continue to look for ways to love our realm…whatever realm it may be in…and love the garden of gratitude in every given moment. If you would love to be inspired by a trip through Artella's new Gratitude Garden ARTbundance™ Adventure, you can sign up for this free experience below.
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