Maybe it’s just me, but I’m betting that’s not accurate. Do you ever just feel like life is moving by so fast you wish someone would just push the pause button? Somedays I feel like a need a doctor to write me a script for mandatory rest.
Last week, that script arrived on my doorstep, in unexpected form. The flu swept into our house with a vengeance and took my whole family out one by one. It was merciless and complete in its overthrow of our home.
As the fevers subside, the coughs are quieted, voices return, and our humanity is restored, I’m seeing last week as a surprising blessing. I got that script for mandatory rest I longed for. The flu graciously pushed the pause button and stopped life for just a short time.
Isn’t it funny how we desire certain things in our lives? Some are simple like rest, while others are far more complicated dreams and desires that run deep in our souls. What is common is that those desires never seem to show up the way we expect.
Maybe that’s why we are always so surprised when our dreams are actually realized. As much as we want them, long for them, pray for them, and work for them, they always materialize with a surprising arrival. They never look the way we think they are supposed to look and never arrive as we assume.
The arrival of the flu in my home has reframed my thinking about the things that I desire and how I receive them. I could have received the flu like a horrific and negative event. It could have derailed me for a week and that could have frustrated me beyond belief.
Instead, I recognized what the flu brought with it, besides all the germs and symptoms. It brought with it, my desire for needed and mandatory rest. Funny how a little reframing can shake up the way we see and respond to things.
I wonder, if you thought about it for a minute, what desires have had surprising arrivals in your life? What have they brought with them? How are you responding?
lisa g. obrien 