Broken Foot; My Right Foot, Not My Left Foot

Today marks the eight week since my life turned upside down. It was the day I broke my right foot. As an avid walker, the broken foot halted life as I’d known it. But, yesterday I went for my first bicycle ride in two months.  I’ve walked my dog the past few days. Life goes on.

My husband retired one month ago.  Yesterday was the third month we’ve had sweet little Lucy. This is the same dog I was attached to when she chased a cat.  That’s the brief version on how I broke my foot.

I sit in bed and write this thankful that sitting in bed is a choice – when I first broke my foot it was more of a necessity.  My foot doesn’t feel one hundred percent right but with more time I’m expecting the body miracle to continue to heal it.

As I write these words it’s with ambivalence. Sometimes when people write of themselves there’s truth shared or compassion unveiled, but some words about me and my life and what I do sound like narcissistic ramblings. Some words refresh, some boggle the mind while other words leave us wanting more. Maybe all things written cannot be a home run. Maybe some words can be mundane, flippant or garish. I honor words. They can take us from the ordinary into sacred space. Maybe I expect too much from my words but I know the possibility. I know how words can dance and prance past our minds and into blessing.  I want to care for my words. I don’t like to waste them on broken foot and token mind spasms.  I want them to live and be free. But in the other hand I cannot live in a word prison. I must be free to speak of daily living and dogs chasing running cats and broken feet.  

As I said “today marks the eight week since my life turned upside down.” No word dread, enough said.

Don't Miss Your Bliss

We look for happiness in people and circumstances. We track down seminars and therapists to relieve pain and birth joy. Sometimes what we think is our finest hour, is our greatest mistake. In the endless looking, we engage in a mentalness that keeps joyful bliss behind the clouds. We forget, that happiness, joy and bliss are now. And only now.

Bliss is life. Freedom comes when we stop looking for others to change or for the world to catch on or wise up. Even if our mate changes, and treats us like royalty, we will not experience bliss. The mind fabricates another story. The job becomes the robber baron or the breaking-down aging body dominates our mindscapes. Maybe we wrap ourselves with second hand drama, such as our mates’ or kids’ lives. In most lives, story time lasts forever. It’s time to stop, even for just a moment. If we don’t, we miss our bliss.

Most people tell you to follow your bliss. If you have to go anywhere other than now, you are going away from the immediacy of life’s bliss. Don’t tell me about your life, how bad things are. I’m not talking about your life. Your real life is covered with the tale of your emotional and physical history. Take away the “my” story and you have life. And life is good. Life is Source.

Your bliss is really not even your bliss. Bliss is just bliss and it shines in everything just as the sun shines down on the planet. One doesn’t get up and say, “Is my sun going to shine today?” It’s everyone’s sun and really no one’s sun because ownership doesn’t apply.

Don’t think you can’t experience bliss, that it’s reserved for mystics, gurus, masters and holy people. Bliss is for you and it is for you now. Forget the mental directive that tells you to clean up so you can experience bliss. Bliss is not a future possible event. Can you imagine getting up in the morning and saying, “I shouted at my friend yesterday, I don’t deserve for the sun to shine on me.” Or “Due to my family history, my past, my unresolved anger, my lack of self esteem, or my inability to sustain healthy relationships, the sun will no longer shine on me.” Thinking that bliss is not available to you now is a story so strong that it obscures your ability to experience what is here and now. Remember the fish who went looking for the ocean and when told he was in the ocean he replied, “Oh this is just water. It can’t be the ocean. I’m going to look somewhere else.”

We love our thoughts, nothing’s wrong with them, but if we just listen to the sound of words rattling around in our heads all the time, we lose life. Have you ever been with someone who talks nonstop? It’s draining. Yet that’s what our minds do, they go nonstop. I’m asking you to stop, just for a moment and look deeply into life, the life that is here and rest in that. Don’t effort to do it, just look whenever you think to look. Make it easy. Do it as an experiment and see what happens. Watch your mind trails, where do they go? Most of the trails are old and worn. They form the trance. Wake up. Just do it. NOW – just for a second. Don’t miss the bliss. It’s now. No exceptions.

Affirmations for Getting Out of the Box

• Today I refer to the present, not the past, in order to truly see my life as it is now.

• Today is a new day and I face this day with an attitude of expectancy.

• I encounter miraculous circumstances today.

• Regardless of what I thought and felt in the past, today is a new day. I eagerly expect and receive my good.

• Today I think out of the box as I release worn out behaviors, patterns and beliefs.

• I consistently refer to a self-image of being wise, intelligent and lovable.