Be Open to Experience

Greetings and Salutations--
    First off I want to take a moment to speak of my debit of gratitude that I feel for everyone that I know (and those I don't, but know me through someone who does) that is praying and or thinking of my mother.. For words and offers of support and volunteering to help look after my mom in the coming weeks and months.. While I have been a nurse for twenty years I have to say that I feel like a new grad being on this end of health care.. In my forty-two years all she has ever had was a flipping colonoscopy.. My mom is the salt of the earth in my life and a rock that I have always been able to lean upon.. I can feel the warmth and love that is being sent out from everyone and it means more that I can ever express.. That being said things feel better when the "show goes on" and I have a blog to put out  :)
     As you can all well imagine I have a million things to blog on about what I am going through at this time in my life.. The one that has filtered it's way to the top is experience and how much of it we need to relate to other people with compassion and understanding.. The experience of love, friendship, disappointment, devastation, sadness, happiness, hope, and endless wonderful possibilities alas require direct participation if you want the most out of life.. It dictates that the only way to understand where another person is coming from is either to have had the same experience or something close enough that you can relate to.. This has taken on sharper meaning as this experience has unfolded, sitting in an ICU waiting room.. That you can't truly begin to know how any particular situation feels until you are standing square in the middle of it..
     Someone can tell you about their plight in life.. Someone can tell you about how their life was forever changed for the best when they altered how they view their world.. It means nothing until you bring it home to your own mind and soul.. Until something you go through changes the core of who you are..  Until you live it yourself, good or bad.. Maybe something as simple as having a conversation with a stranger and realizing how much negativity is out in the world that surrounds us all.. How sorry you feel for that person that they don't have the life skills to feel positive about any given situation.. That (positive) perspective is truly the key to a life lived in a deeply purposeful way..
     People tend to stay within the confines of their world and shy away from what will make them learn.. What doesn't feel good emotionally doesn't feel comfortable.. They travel very little.. They have friends that all feel about love, life and politics as they themselves do.. They don't take the time to learn another way to view a situation.. The very nature of being able to see more than one side of a situation or feeling is to be exposed to various DIFFERENT ways of thinking and believing.. A skill, thought, or feeling can't be mastered until you do it enough for it to move from uncomfortable to comfortable.. That takes repeated exposure to the very thing that made you uncomfortable in the first place.. That requires perseverance.. It takes a lot of hard work to stay in a moment of time (situation) that doesn't feel familiar.. By human nature, when we are uncomfortable, we will go to extraordinary lengths to get back to our comfort zone..
     Here is what I offer for consideration.. I think that we should put ourselves out there as much as possible.. Make travel a priority.. Seek out what makes you uncomfortable and work to appreciate what you don't understand or agree with.. The next time someone offers a contrary point of view make a conscious effort to open you mind and listen.. Open yourself up to the opportunity to learn more than one way to think or feel.. The more connected we are to each other the more we live with compassion for those we share this earth with.. The more connected we are the better we all coexist.. I love that word "coexist" for alot of reasons but mostly because it doesn't imply I have to agree with your point of view or choices.. It just means I have an edge that I can respect the differences in people and not take it personally.. It would be a truly boring place if we all felt and looked at life and all its happenings the same.. Push past your boundaries.. Apply all this to a family member you have ostracized because you disagree with  their choices or who they are from something that happened in the past..
     Love everyone you can for who they are and more importantly for who they are not, for that is where the essence of that person lives.. Not who you think they are or wish them to be, but who they are as the rest of the world sees them.. Allow them to arrive at their destination in life on their own time frame, not yours.. Be OK that you see or feel things differently from them.. Live your life and with all those in it so that if tomorrow it all changed you can look in the mirror and say "I've done right by those that I've loved".. Life isn't about having no regrets for those are inevitable . The life we get up and live everyday for should be such that if someone dear to you were taken tomorrow, you lived a life of fulfillment with them to the best of your ability, not full of regret for what you should have said or done with them when you had them.. We all have room for improvement.. Make sure your room is as small as possible on purpose--Regrets take up more space than you anticipate in the end..

Tootles :)
Heather