Crash Bang Bloom
In my early 30’s, I was fired from a job and the CEO told me, “This is just a bump in the road.”
I was completely outraged and it took quite some time for anger to dissipate. In the rear view mirror, it was the on-ramp to my spiritual life. Once again, the cosmic two-by-four smack to the backside served a grand purpose.
Last week, I was on a dirt bike ride with a dear friend in Ketchum, ID. His son is about my size, so I fit well into his massive quantities of protective gear including knee pads, rip-proof outer garments, chest pads, shoulder pads, elbow pads, full-face helmet, steel toed boots, and padded shorts. I felt like Iron Man as we rode out of town towards the Boulder Mountains. Near the end of a forty-mile ride, I tipped over at the high speed of 2 MPH. The bike went left and my body met the earth on the right. The first thing to hit was my right-side lower rib cage. The audible crunch was a precursor to the premature end of my vacation. I have cracked ribs a few times and know about the long recovery process. We did visit a local urgent care facility to make sure it was just a rib injury. Like all other times, the advice was to lay low for six weeks and allow the body to repair.
If you have never experienced a rib injury, the pain is easy to summarize. It only hurts when you laugh, breathe, cough, poop, or sleep.
I was at a Satsang session in India and asked the spiritual leader how he maintained his omnipresent positive attitude. His response changed my life when he said, “When things happen, I do not let them bother me. I surrender my ego’s need for an explanation.” Those simple words carry a powerful message of unconditional acceptance.
I am a strong believer that things happen for a reason. Many people feel this is hocus-pocus or some type of fairy tale. I find it to be a great way to plow through life’s inevitable road bumps.
Rest is not my strong suit, so this is a grand opportunity to allow my body to recover. I never seem to find the time to polish my Spanish speaking skills. The excuse of time has been eliminated. It has been several years since I had a six-week stretch at my home in Boise. Another great chance to reconnect with my local friends.
Caroline Myss summarizes my feelings when she said, “Stop thinking that bad things shouldn’t happen to you if you’re a good person. What are bad things? How do you know what a bad thing is? How do you know?”
I look forward to seeing what blooms from this bump.
