The Universe gets its way – again!
Oh nooooo! The oat groats are bubbling over the lip of my nice, clean stainless steel pot, sliding their not-yet-soft bellies down the sides – getting their behinds blackened on the flame licking the pot’s bottom.
I complain to them, “Look at the mess. Now I have to do a lot of scraping and scrubbing. Can’t get anything else done and then it’ll be noon and before you know it, the sun’s shutting down for the night, already half asleep behind San Antonio Mountain.”
And then I hear an echo of her voice rattling around inside my empty skull – my brain having shriveled up in disgust from all those ‘poor me’ thoughts, “El-LEN, do your inner work.” Of COURSE it’s her; no one else pronounces my name with the accent on the second syllable. It’s Sister Zia, the tiny, spunky Buddhist nun who sometimes lives down the road from me and the rest of the time she’s in Spain or India or some exotic place I long to visit.
Yes, my inner work! Saying affirmations is one of my daily practices for growing younger and so is “choose how to respond.” I recall telling someone that it’s not difficult to choose how to respond if you’re like me and don’t have a spouse or kids or a dog hanging around the house to ruffle your feathers. And so most days I’d just put a dash on my Daily Practice Checklist for “choose how to respond.” (I seldom use my checklist anymore; I’ve got all my practices tucked into unused corners of my brain.)
But I’ve since realized the Universe doesn’t let you off that easy when it wants you to learn how to respond to maddening situations. So… you don’t have a spouse reclining on the couch watching TV while you get your exercise picking up the kids’ clothes and wiping up the floor where the puppy peed? No problem. The Universe might send you something like bubbling-over oat groats to see whether you’ll react or respond. Or the vitamin/supplement fiasco I had later in the afternoon.
I have one of those holders for 14 days’ worth of vitamins. Each day’s cup has a mouth wide enough to hold my 16 supplements. (And that’s just the morning ones – I have a separate holder for my evening vitamins.) Can you imagine how long it takes to fill each of those cups from the 16 bottles? Now imagine my starting to close the lids and suddenly the holder jumps off the counter onto the floor. All those critters escape – some under the refrigerator, some into the hallway, one into my slipper I’d taken off to threaten a spider before grabbing the plastic cup and postcard for its trip outdoors. How much is 16 times 14? Granted, some of the vitamins are unique; however, many are like teenagers rebelling against the status quo by all dressing alike.
But YIPPEE! I remembered to choose how to respond. I calmly and quietly gathered them all up into a shoebox lid, spread them out on the dining table and then spent the next 20 hours (well, maybe not 20) sorting them into 14 piles. All that while serenely saying my affirmation for the day: “I’m learning. I’m learning.”
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