When something terrible happens to someone you love dearly, who most certainly does not deserve it (or to you for that matter) how do you explain it to yourself? How do you prevent yourself from falling into a nihilistic hellhole? If you are like me and most other human beings, it is probably through the stories you tell yourself about why it happened.
So why does bad stuff happen to good people…
Warrior Girl is 2 years and 3 months old now, and as I prepare for her sister’s upcoming birth, (did I mention we’re having a GIRL?!?) memories of Warrior Girl’s birth are fresh on my mind. It was one of the most incredible days of my life, because it was the day I met my daughter and the day I became a mother. But in addition to that, part of what was incredible was the actual process of giving birth. Reader beware: the story below contains talk of cervix, dilation, etc. Oh, and one F-bomb. Because birth is messy, people. Turn back now if you don’t want the details. *** My water broke at 11:30 pm on August 4th. It was the full-on gush that happens frequently in movies and much less frequently in real life. I was suddenly confronted with many of my fears about giving birth and remember vividly thinking What have I gotten myself into? I laid in bed that night analyzing every cramp and twinge, waiting for labor to start. Was that a contraction? What the hell does a contraction even feel like? I got a…
(Image Credit llreadll) One time, my friend had what I like to call “a moment of clarity.” That is, a moment of awakening, a moment in which she was at peace, a moment in which her thinking mind had stopped trying to figure out ALL THE THINGS, and paradoxically, it all made sense. How do I know this? Because for about 60 seconds, she had a look of wonder on her face. And then panic. Then she said something to the effect of, “But how do you hold on to this?” Which is nothing but the hallmark of a fleeting experience of awakening. And it’s frequently those very words, thought or verbalized, which bring it to an end. I could never forget being there when this happened for my friend. My friend, on the other hand, had completely forgotten about it two years later. How could that be? I like to think of our minds as containing a vast maze of filing cabinets. All incoming data is processed through the dependable-yet-conventional filing lady, Mildred. Mildred always wears sensible shoes. She is very kindly, and she isn’t taking any chances with our well-being. She does…
Row, Row, Row Your Boat: Wisdom for the ages. An exploration of the nothing matters/everything matters paradox. A beautiful image of the unfolding of wisdom, of awakening. For me, this nursery rhyme ranks up there with advice from the spiritual masters. Also, I tend to get all awkwardly deep about random, casual things and I thought the internet was the perfect place to unleash my weirdness on this topic. Let’s break it down, shall we? Only let’s do it backwards. Life is but a dream… During moments of clarity, across time and cultures, people have been struck with a realization that the world as we know it is illusion. We only interact with the world though our paradigms, what we view as solid is shifting, who we think we are is not real, we see only “through a glass darkly.” We realize all we stress about and strive for and obsess over is only “dust in the wind” and all our busy comings and goings cannot change the Truth of Our Being. When this happens, it is like a 2×4 to the head which puts everything into perspective…
If you’ve been hanging around Wonderland for a while, you might know I work as a therapist, in addition to caring for my daughter and pontificating to you all via THE INTERNET a couple times per week. Now, being a therapist involves a lot of sitting in stiff-backed chairs, mustache-twirling, pipe-smoking, and saying “mmm…mmmhmmm.” Just kidding. But seriously, I was wondering why my 1.5 year old daughter, Warrior Girl, says “uh huh” and “hmmm” all the time when my husband pointed out it is because I am a therapist. But really, being a therapist involves a whole lot of listening to things that are hard to hear, and a whole lot of sitting with people in their sadness, their anger, their despair. This is tough to do without a paradigm of life that can give meaning and/or coherence to the vast suffering we therapists (and humans in general) encounter on the daily. So not long ago, I was skating through life, not really paying attention, when suddenly I woke up and found myself in a nihilistic hellhole of absurdity. Yes, yes, I’m sure…