Life’s a Patchwork Affair
As I’ve already mentioned in a previous post (“Notice Anything Different?”), I’ve moved the BullsEye blog to a new hosting service, and part of the old site didn’t make the transfer properly. The database containing the old posts (all the way back to 2004) wouldn’t import into the new setup.
In discussing this with a friend by email, I mentioned that I didn’t really mind because it looked like an unexpected opportunity to me.
This friend (and contributing author) Peter Vajda is no stranger to opportunities growing out of unexpected changes. In fact, he often coaches people on this very point. His reply was so on-point, that I asked him if I could share it with you. Hope you find it useful.
You know, Charles, when I coach folks around the unpredictability of life and change I point to a small (3×3) quilt that hangs in my office. There are two angels in the middle and around the edges are any number of 2″x2″ squares of various colors, designs, etc.
I ask a client to consider one of those squares and equate it to a life event, positive or negative, happy or unhappy, etc and then suggest that if we cut it out and just laid it on a plain surface, most likely in and of itself it would not have much meaning, or if it has meaning, there would be little to no context.
BUT, all those little squares, together, constitute and support the larger picture (life’s journey), the larger journey, and together they make sense…this square had to be there to contribute to the connection to the next square, and the next square had to be there to contribute to the next, and all together, a beautiful tapestry…even with the “unhappy” squares, is created.
So, I don’t know, Charles, maybe it’s not about randomness or if it is, like quantum physics, maybe there is a “meaning” to/of chaos and unpredictability.
For me, it’s being curious about why this is happening “FOR” (not TO) me and wondering what it is about this event, circumstance, place or person (each little square) that contributes to the larger picture of my life and how it relates to my emotional and spiritual growth. But, that’s just me.
Just a thought.
Pretty cool, huh? It’s just a matter of taking EVERY unexpected, unplanned event and, instead of automatically assuming it’s “bad” or “wrong” and leaping to beat it away, you treat it as a friend. You actively look for what’s good about it.
Tell the truth now, haven’t you also found that some of your greatest breakthroughs arrived in situations that didn’t happen the way you thought they “should” happen?
Oh and by the way, Peter’s websites are SpiritHeart.net and Ahchiyo.com
Cheers from warm and smiling Thailand,
Charles
Life IS our experience of change. We see it from a very personal and specific viewpoint. But Oh! how quick we are to judge, eh?
Something happens, an event occurs and we immediately judge it’s relevance on the immediate impact on our life. My advice? Try and avoid the judgement bit. Watch life. Observe life. Join in life. But judge slowly, if at all.
If only we could see into the future. Maybe then we would realise that certain things have to happen for our growth, our development, or our continuation. Most of all, we could maybe see that our future joy so often depends on our current discomfort. You cannot have one without the other. Life’s classic example is the joy of motherhood only coming after the pain of childbirth.
Not everything is as predictable as childbirth and motherhood though. Sometimes things just happen. Yes, they probably have a cause at some stage, and if we can find the cause, then GREAT! It may help. Sometimes it won’t.
In the northern hemisphere we’re experiencing the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, before slowly the leaves fall, leaving bare limbs on our trees as they sleep through the short low slung days of wintry chill.
Do not judge autumn.
Autumn has to happen for us to have winter. Winter has to happen. It is a time of internal consolidation and reflection. Only after can we have Spring. It’s all part of the cycle.
I love the bursting forth of first snowdrops, the daffodils, horse-chestnut sticky-buds, hyacinths, tulips and life in full glory.
It’s part of the package. It just is. Great, isn’t it!
Jon
Very well framed, Jon. We can find metaphors for life all around us, and few are richer or more beautiful than the cycle of the seasons. Many thanks.
Cheers, Charles