When life comes at you

Posted on 04. Feb, 2011 by Susan Wright in Life Coaching, Personal and Professional Development

Watch out here it comes! Life is like that, is just shows up and presents new challenges and discoveries. I’ve had this three-dimensional view of life stuck in my mind for the past few days, in that, it seems whatever surface of life is present there’s something ready and waiting to latch on.  On every surface there are relationships that draw upon our strengths, resources, and gifts. Likewise, there are relationships that give back and fill in the gaps. We are relational. There is a reciprocity, a pay it forward, a what comes around goes around sort of thing that happens in life.

To bring this to a simple thought, note how often people and information comes at you and how much of it you can really take in and act upon. I imagine little sticky notes adhering to me, those are surface items, then there are, sticky substances like pollen that find a surface to get comfy with. There’s something about life that attracts the very thing it needs and then there are sticky notes that stay around until the message is taken note of or acted upon.  So what’s sticking to you these days?

There are also times when your strength is needed more than you think you’ll ever be ready for. This week I received news that my friend’s son has cancer, just when his life was moving forward, his son’s life has reached out and chosen his parents to be that surface he most wants to be comforted by.  I kept thinking of the expression, “life only gives you what you can handle,” and I know they will (handle it), and also reassuring to know how many others lives will now bring forward another surface for this family to lean on.

Point is, we aren’t alone. We are in connection by the multidimensional aspect of being human and alive.  This is pretty amazing and somewhat terrifying – as we really don’t walk this earth alone and one aspect of your life will in no doubt affect another.  It’s a paradox for me in someway, as often I’m helping people take steps that appear as linear and progressive. In yet, we know it’s so not! The work I do and that of human development is sort of like being in a field of flowers and or, shafts of wheat or grass; seeding, moving, growing, rooting, and integrating with the existing environment. Life is full of patterns, dimensions, and networks.

So when life comes at you, it’s likely to want to throw up your arms and say “no more,” if you’re already in a state of overwhelm. But also so important to put your arms around something that you can hold and support and let other people do what they can. I think it’s a human fault or rather a default position to think: I got do this, manage this, and deal with it. As if we are just so great! Really? By our very existence and survival we are social beings.

So next time life is coming at you from every angle, know that there are and will be others who have something you might want and need. It’s really up to us to ask. I also might add that when you do, that person can bring their greatest gifts to bare and that makes everyone feel better. We don’t go around talking about this kind of thing but, we know. Yes, I’m touching on that topic of vulnerability and those less than tangible qualities of our human life, than the typical stuff that gets noted. I’m just saying, life is not a hard impermeable surface, there’s prickly parts, porous parts, soft parts, and sticky ones too!

We can together, be a whole lot better. Find a field to grow in and let surfaces and landscape around you, unfold as it will.

Be with what is,

Susan

Tags: lifestyle coaching, personal development, relationships, trust, vulnerability