Find The Gifts
Scans, tests, hospital appointments, surgery. My husband Mark is facing something we all hope will never happen to us. The past couple of months have been more challenging and anxiety inducing than anything I’ve ever faced. We are not through it yet, but he had a second surgery to remove a tumour and is recovering well!
Even during our most scary moments, one thought kept coming into my mind.
“What are the gifts?”
Maybe you find this odd. I would find this strange if I didn’t know me. I’ve spent years coaching myself and others to find the good.
Look for the good. It’s always there.
During this life threatening challenge, we regularly paused to talk about the good we could already see in the situation.
- Time together, nothing else was more important than looking after each other.
- Talking and listening, we created space, asked questions, tried to understand and support each other.
- We prioritised wellness, taking action on things we always said we `should’ do, like prioritising cooking to eat well, being with nature, daily smoothies, hydration, meditation etc.
- Connection and reconnection with friends and relatives we’d lost touch with.
- We finally made the commitment to invest fifteen grand to turn the VW into a Camper Van. A summer of adventure or money in the bank?
I used to spend a lot of time thinking about what other people think of me, my social media presence, my live coaching sessions etc. This would often hold me back, slow me down and create a lot of doubt and worry.
I still care, but I now able to touch it lightly. In other words, things that used to worry me, I have released giving a sh** about. Try it, it’s liberating!
In the early months of the Pandemic, the late Bob Proctor reminded us of something. He said, “Accept it, we can’t change it. It is what it is. Harvest the good, forgive all the rest.”
Everything has an opposite. Up, down, right, left, good, bad, happy, sad, positive, negative. I believe there is good to be found in everything. It may not be instantly recognisable, and you may seem crazy to even try to look for it, but it’s always there.
If you’ve been through something like this, you’ll know how much it changes you. It’s like your head has been taken off, shaken around, turned upside down and put back on again. At times it felt like I was living someone else’s life, an outer body experience, a parallel universe. At some point a worm hole would open back up to transport us back to our real life. Our old life.
But that’s gone now, and there’s lots to be grateful for.
I am not in a hurry to go through this again and we are focusing on a positive future. We feel blessed by the growth and wisdom one can only get through experience. Perhaps the bigger the challenge you’re facing the bigger the growth you receive?
Whatever challenge you face, if it’s a big one, get excited because, there will be gifts there for you. It’s hard, but we can look for them, and finding them will get us through.
With love
Lorna