Which People Are You?
by Leslie Sann
I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~Mae West
Life is neutral. Our circumstances are impersonal. The personal part is how we participate. How we choose to relate to the situation.
The way we interpret an occurrence is the experience we get to live in. How else can we account for the fact that someone experiences joy in a similar situation that someone else falls into depression?
When it snows, some people get cold, other people go skiing.
A neutral phenomena of weather; precipitation in the air; temperature is below 32°F. And … something happens. It snows.
Some people get cold. “It’s so cooold … brrrrrr.” Yet, there are people who go “Yippee!” put on warm clothes, bundle up, pile into the car and go skiing. “Let’s go have fun in the snow … Wheee!”
We usually go into life with an expectation that it’s going be the way we planned. Of course we do.
Based on our assumptions we design our actions for the day. Without intention, we are a boat drifting on the water without purpose or direction. So we make a plan. We write it down. And then something happens. Life happens. It “snows.”
I have a client who has trained herself to respond to a storm with “This is going to be good for me.”
What a great frame to put around disturbance. Now her assumption is there’s something here FOR her. Or she can make something good out of what happened. She can wait out the storm, trusting she will make something useful out of what has occurred.
Life does stir thing up at times. I’ve been out in a storm, winds nearly blowing me over. I’ve learned it is best to go inside and wait it out. The middle of a storm is not the time to strategize and plan. I don’t know what I am working with yet.
As John Lennon reminded us, life is what happens when we are busy making other plans.
So what?
Now what?
That magic question “Now what?”
Bonus add-on: “This will be good for us.” Now the search engine of the mind starts looking to discover how that is so. Stumbling blocks become stepping stones as we LIFT UP into creativity.
Our attitude shifts our experience. How we engage matters. Where we put our focus. “The sky if falling” — or — this will be good for us. You are the creator.
When it snows … some people get cold — other people go skiing.
Which people are you?
Blessings,
