As I pulled up the blinds the sun came streaming through the window and I gave thanks for the beautiful sunshine. As the blind went up so did the little spider hanging on for dear life. After assisting him with relocation services I gave thanks again that he was no longer in my room but moving on with life elsewhere. It was going to be a good day.
That's what my friend Dina thought a few Saturdays ago when she took her dog out for his morning walk. But a bee stung her and being allergic she raced home to take some preventative medicine. It didn’t work; she still ended up in the emergency room later that afternoon. Days later she was still feeling the effects of the venom in her system when she got stung again.
You have to feel for her but can you understand the effects of such an incident on her body? Try as I might empathize I really couldn’t and it was even more pointedly brought home to me this week when I got stung by a bee! It was painful and burned all evening. I became such a wuss complaining miserably until I remembered Dina.
This idea of walking in someone else’s shoes came up in another conversation this week too with Joe. He’s in a rough place right now. He has a chronic illness that he’s not managed well and it’s affecting his work. He’s a really great guy and everyone wants to help him. We all have lots of advice for him but none of us can really understand the mountain and hill climb he faces every morning. And how tiring it can be.
I wonder the best way to help someone like Joe or Dina? I look to the Reiki principles and think about ‘being grateful.’ That’s just a bunch of fluff to Joe. I know Dina uses it but sometimes it’s just easier to relay all that’s wrong. I think of some of the other tricks I use to get going on the mornings when I wake feeling less than wonderful. I often think of my favorite M & M commercial where the boy chocolate comes into the party and disrobes to the tune of Sexy and I know it – wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. It gets me every time and I cannot help but laugh! And with the laugh I can get going.
Nope, none of them seem appropriate. Perhaps there are times when you can do nothing for those in pain around you except to be there. Maybe you laugh with them, cry with them, or just hang out saying nothing.
How about, inside your head, you give thanks you have the opportunity to just be there!
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And just for fun...