Why you want to be slapped by a big, wet fish!
This week I was reminded of a conversation I had a while ago with a friend about those moments where life knocks you off your feet. At the time I had just found out some news that really threw me and a dear friend of mine said to me “it’s like life just slapped you in the face with a big, fat, wet fish.” Thinking he felt sorry for me, he then continued with, “I just wish it had slapped you in the face a lot earlier”. For a moment I was taken back, offended even – who would want one of their close friends slapped on the face with a big, fat, wet fish? Then I realised his comments were from a place of love. My friend wanted me to move past the hurt, anxiety, struggle the news had brought up for me as soon as possible. What I saw as an absolute slap in the face, he saw as a gift. Life had offered me a gift and I had no choice but to accept the gift (as cold, wet and heavy as it felt) and deal with it.
How many times do we come across road blocks and get so angry and frustrated that we have to deviate from our clear or desired path? At the time it always feels like the worst thing in the world, but later when you’ve travelled down a different road for a while you understand why that road block was there and even become grateful for it. Recently I have found myself at a road block and am still in the initial stages where I am frustrated and resistant to changing course but I know life is steering me onto another course for a reason. In fact it’s going to be a relief to finally move, regardless of which way. As Albert Einstein says:
Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.
~ ALBERT EINSTEIN ~
Anyone who has seen me on a bike knows I am terrible, no really – terrible! That’s probably why I am so out of balance. But perhaps it is time I get back on the bike (however daunting that is) and just move. And if the Universe couldn’t be any clearer, I got asked to go mountain biking this week. Crazy right?
We are so often caught up in the past and the future that we often neglect the present and the wealth of choice we have right now. Our determination to recreate the past and imagine the future gives us an almost tunnel-like vision and so we should be grateful when something comes and knocks us off our path and forces us into the present where, if we open our eyes, the possibilities are endless. So my question to you this week is, is there something you are seeing as an obstacle that you can transform into a gift? A gift to get you out of a place or situation that no longer serves you? What big, wet, fish has slapped you in the face lately, and can you rejoice in the fact that it will only make you stronger?
“Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break yo u down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.”
~ CHARLIE JONES ~
