Accidental Insight

Hope you’re well and enjoying this pretty September!

If you’ve been reading my posts lately, you know I’ve been writing about positivity and how the road to happiness can be somewhat treacherous. Most times, we can’t see around the corner, so we have no warning that life may take a sudden turn. The bend in the road may reveal some small bumps or you may get hit with some bigger roadblocks. In my case, an unfortunate set of circumstances set my wheels in motion for a real road collision. While I can recall each moment from a bird's-eye view in my mind, my two eyes now have trouble seeing one small image. It's temporary and I will heal.

I am also very lucky. But as I wait, feeling dizzy and slightly dumb, there’s little I can do but surrender and receive what will come. As a doer and giver, this is hard. Screen time is limited, so I wrote this in spurts to share some positive insights since taking this unexpected turn...

1. My parents. Like no time has past, they just jumped in and took care of their kid. And I’ve just loved being their daughter.

2. My men. While my husband filled our fridge with homemade soups (his carrot soup recipe is below), my boys filled me up with pride as I got to see them as men.

3. My circle. It’s a swirl of family and friends - from every corner of my life. All of them reached out to simply say, “I’m thinking of you,” which touched me deep in a part of my soul I never knew existed.

4. Coffee. Computer time is out when I wake up, so drinking my coffee outside while staring up at the morning sky has now become my favorite time of day. It taught me how to truly savor coffee - and the present moment.

5. Personal contact. It’s a lost art among texts and tweets. No emoji can replace a real expression on someone's face. You might miss how much someone really loves you if you can’t see it in their eye or the shiver on their lip or the squeeze in their hug.

6. Walking. My eyes make driving tricky, so I’ve made do with Instacart, Amazon, Uber, the Metra, family and friends. Eventually, though, a girl wants to get out on her own... and walking outside is the best medicine. As I walk, I’ve bumped into streams and slugs and my old scrappy self that played on the streets when I was little.

7. Seeing. Imagine a frenemy took the heel of her hand and smacked you hard on the forehand. That feeling, being stunned, is what it feels like to have an injury that makes your eyes not work so well. As someone who likes to think and problem solve, I've had to simplify my tasks, truly prioritize what needs to be done and let go of feeling defeated when I fall short-sighted. I've had to literally surrender in order to see.

I don't believe the universe brought this accident upon me to teach me to slow down. I have more faith in the universe than that. Rather, I do believe the universe took care of me when I got in harm's way and gave me the precious gift of seeing that giving and receiving are two sides of one very curvy road.

As always, I'll leave you with...