Things are not always what they seem – which is an open invitation for us to delve deeper, care more, let go . . . and be non-judgmental. I was reminded of this twice this morning while walking my dog Yoda (blond terrier mix like Benji – only cuter).
While waiting for Yoda during his intensive and thorough foray into every flower, bud and leaf on the bushes in front of us, I noticed what looked like a coin buried in the sand of the parking area in front of the cottages where these bushes were. I bent down and picked up the dull bronze penny, cupped it in my hand since I had no pockets and walked home with Yoda . . . frequently looking at it as I ran my fingers over its slightly textured surface.
When we got home, I put it down to wipe Yoda’s paws, and when I picked it up again – I noticed it was not a penny at all . . . it was a dime.
Now that may not seem “earth shattering” to you – but it was to me, for it is in the small, seemingly insignificant things and events of our lives that we grasp and come to understand the larger ones.
So, seeing that it was a dime (when I was so sure it was a penny) stopped me in my tracks and made me say “Wow!” For even though I know things are not always what they seem and that appearances can sometimes be just that – appearances and not the underlying and larger reality – it was just such a direct, concrete, simple, “almost acting out” of this principle right before my eyes, that it stunned me.
You see, one of my neighbors, who has always been healthy, robust, agile and energetic, is undergoing heavy duty chemotherapy and is rather lethargic, slumped over and sometimes drags his feet now. I have been avoiding him, not knowing what to say or where to look (certainly not in his eyes) – and when I saw him slumped over as he was walking yesterday, I said to myself, “Oh, my God,” and thought the worst.
Well this morning, another neighbor mentioned him and verbalized this same response to his appearance, holding up a mirror to me of my own perhaps false, certainly unfair, assumptions. This prompted me to tell her not to let appearances seem to be reality, for she will mirror that reality to our neighbor, who will see it in her eyes.
You see, my mother, (who is completely cured, healthy, healed and radiantly alive now) was deathly ill a few years ago, with three different cancers consecutively, plus a blood clot on the brain afterwards; and by all medical standards and prognoses, she should have been dead at least three times. She looked like the perennial “walking death.” She looked hollow, frail, ashen, and every other ghastly adjective you can think of – and everyone, including her doctor – gave her up for dead. They avoided her and never looked at her, certainly not in the eye, just like I have been doing with my neighbor.
But after my penny changed into a dime this morning, I now want to not only not avoid my sick neighbor, I want to go over to his house, look him straight in the eye and tell him not to care what other people think they see when they look at him; not to let that be his mirror – not to let that appear to be reality. I want to tell him that reality is whatever we want it to be – that we create our own reality by our perceptions and often re-create reality by our vision and the strength of our will, just as my mother did.
I want to embrace him – with the love I have been withholding from him out of fear – and I want him to look into my eyes and see the mirror of a new reality . . . of everything that is possible, no matter what appearances seem to suggest. I know this is so . . . because I learned it from my mother.
Blessings to you all. I hope you are enjoying the wonders of this glorious spring . . . with all its possibilities and its promise of new and exciting realities.
Live Serendipitously . . . and Enjoy!
Madeleine
“The Serendipity Lady”
www.madeleinekay.com
Visit my Serendipity Day page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/serendipityday
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