Some people never develop a taste for Lima beans.
I’m always reminded of that when I choose them for my plate. Oddly at the precise moment that revelation appears I am also reminded of gagging when they appeared on my plate as a young boy.
Like so many paradoxical lessons life offers we often don’t realize how something enriches our life experience until we manage to deal with initial unpleasantness of an unexpected experience.
So much of what we define as a “happy fulfilling life” is too often predicated on the world remaining “with all our ducks in a row”
Everyone behaving the way we imagined from the comfort of under the covers this morning, and everything tasting just as we like.
” Life’s short might as well have it your way!” I am incessantly told .
Really…. doesn’t that imply that if it’s going “my way” life is as it should be??
“Cool !! I knew it .. that’s exactly what I’ve been telling you all for all these years”
It’s easy to recognize in the context illustrated above how ridiculous it is to expect a day without disturbance, but if we all know this then why are we so fucked up when Lima beans appear on our plate?
Why is it someone driving, in a way that we don’t feel coincides with our interpretation of the right way to operate a motor car, why is it when this happens that many of us lose our shit and drive 20 miles out of our way, trying desperately both verbally and with all the sign language we can remember, to let him know he should consider surrendering his licence?
The best reason I can come up with is “why am I not that happy” is a trick question !
The more egocentric we as a population become, (thanks Andy Warhol for the 15 mins of comment), the more we assume that things are supposed to go the way we deem correct.
Despite what we are perpetually misguided to believe, I suggest not one of us are not born with an entitlement to life without heartbreak, challenge and failure.
Try sharing the notion that failure is not progress with a toddler learning to walk: try scolding the youngster for falling. See how quickly he gets back up and tries again.
Or imagine those who never fully love for fear of the pain of heartbreak. Lima beans may make you gag but a life with an empty heart will kill you.
However also we are often reminded: “The heart is not filled from the outside” and this is paradox that I referred to earlier.
For It is exclusively in the stories behind my scuffed knees, broken hearts and embarrassing failures that I was inspired to press on and in so doing,that my spirit was fully freed to learn and grow. Only with complete acceptance of the “Shit Fairy’s” role as part of my life was I even capable of imagining being fully open to experiencing all of my life!
We we designed to evolve and the greatest growth comes with repeated, often challenging exercises to reveal to the world all that we have to offer.
And can’t this can only be revealed when we (within the intimacy of self awareness) stand in front of a challenge and rise to face it ?
It is only when I have resisted the natural temptation to shield myself from the pain of accepting “life on life’s terms” that my truest self surfaced with abilities and subsequently the confidence to get through even a large mound of Lima beans when they show up.
Now pass the Brussels sprouts please .