STOPS! Along the Way

We would like to believe

That if we only knew

If there had been a red octagon sign:

Slow Down

STOP

Ahead

We could have prepared our Self

Somehow made it easier

Lessened the pain

Prevented the events

Done something

Been in control of the experience

That derailed life as we knew it

Put the brakes on

Jarring us

Jolting us

Dismantling us

Into pieces floating

Mind, Body, Heart & Soul

Until we land on new ground

Became whole again in a new life

An unexpected life

That we would have never wished for

Yet here we are

Seeing the Beauty

The Miracles

The Truth

In the necessary

STOPS

Along the way

That never cease

Gifting us

With a Grace

So fierce

So lovely

It must be the heavens

Blowing through us

To reveal more

 

The Truth of who we are.

 

I was running down Grider Hill at Lake Cumberland when this 5 feet by 5 feet wooden sign jumped out at me.  It was painted white with red letters and an octagon stop sign:  Slow Down…STOP Ahead.  There were 2 more signs just like it before the actual stop sign, giving ample warning.  A thought blazed through my mind:  Oh Boy!  It sure would be nice to have “fair” warning when life brings stops along the way.  And instantly, I knew:  I want to believe it would make the blows easier but that is just BS I feed myself because nothing makes those STOPS! Less jarring or jolting as the whole of our life is dismantled, requiring us to patiently wait to ground in the new. 

 

STOPS along the way are necessary.  This doesn’t make them easy and it most certainly is not some fair system of justice served.  But it is a part of life that each of us gets to experience.  No one goes through life unscathed and we all get our asses handed to us at some point.  There is no avoiding life try as we might to concoct a plan to manage the unmanageable and control the uncontrollable.  I actually can laugh at myself now when in spite of all the wisdom I possess still try to willfully power through what I am powerless over.  This is absolutely human and since none of us walks on water, we can accept that we want what we want when we want it and will do things even when we know better to make what we want to happen, happen.  (I hope you are laughing out loud because I am, and it feels good to be entertained by my humanness and delight in the absurdity.)  

Life is a constant of letting go and allowing the new.  The STOPS gift us in the pause where we can reflect, asking our Self:  What now?!  What do I want for my life?  Who am I now?  What am I feeling? What is this showing me?  There is a grace so fierce and so lovely in the STOPS along the way that it must be the heavens blowing through us to reveal more and this never ceases as we are limitless, creatures of soul that aren’t wired to stay the same.  The soul knocks and invites us to the next rung on the ladder.  Often, hearing this knock is a result of the stillness found in the STOPS along the way.

The invitation this day and throughout your life is to use the STOPS that come.  Acknowledge the pain and recognize that you would never have wished for the events that rock your world AND welcome the wisdom, spin the gold from the lead, the heaviness.  Scream out to the heavens, curse them – I assure you they can handle and contain all the anger and rage – AND ask them to show you the gifts of this STOP.  Trust that although the gifts are expensive, costing us EVERYTHING – the life we knew and that made sense – there are treasure waiting to be revealed.  That treasure is the truth of who YOU are!