Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges

As I mentioned here, this year I’ll focus on transitions as one of my major themes.  One of my closest friends, Barb Poole, suggested I read “Transitions:  Making Sense of Life’s Changes” by William Bridges.  Barb Poole is an accomplished life and career coach and has not only worked with people in transition, but has had plenty of her own.  And she knows me very well – so I knew it would be a great book for me at this liminal time.

I’ll be referring back to this book often this year, I suspect as it is so rich.  It lays out a map of how transitions work.    As I traverse back and forth over the landscape of endings (the starting point of all transitions, he says), through the no man’s land of the empty of fallow time between, and finally a new beginning I will be quoting this guide to the territory.

One of the most helpful aspects of this book for me was that it normalized what I am feeling these days – which is, mostly, lost.  As someone who has been a hard-charging achiever since, oh, the age of 3 or so, this period of listlessness and lack of direction, while not a first, is, again very uncomfortable.  Bridges reminds me that this is part of the process.

He lays out various predictable points of transitions – from childhood to adulthood via the transitional zone of adolescence, a similar maturation cycle at midlife and as we enter elderhood.  One’s children leaving home.  The death of our parents. And many non age-related transitions familiar to many of us – leaving or losing an important job, the end of a marriage.

I can see why this book has sold over 500,000 copies.  It provides a map for the journey (invaluable!), specific guidelines for the tasks one CAN do to traverse the terrain, and reassurance that the periods in which one is relatively powerless and lost ARE part of the process.

And he contextualizes the process in an important way at the very beginning of the book (page 3):

“To feel as though everything is ‘up in the air,’ as one so often does during times of personal transition, is endurable if it means something – if it is part of a movement towards a desired end.  But if it is not related to some larger and beneficial pattern, it simply becomes distressing.”

The transition I am in now – from ‘householder years’ to ‘wandering sage years’ – from ‘midlife to ‘baby elderhood’ DOES give me a sense of meaning.

Last year I asked my dad what the best year(s) of his life had been to date.  He first replied “well, whatever year you are still alive, I suppose.” But then he got serious and said “actually, the decade you are in now and the one following it {60s and 70s}.  You still have a lot of energy and independence to do things, but life doesn’t rattle you as much – those are good years.”

That’s the meaning I seek – how to make these years – the rest of my years – the best part of my life.

What is the transition YOU are in?  Does it have a sense of meaning to you?  Are you at the ending/the lost part/or the new beginning?  As always, I really want to know!  Post a comment and join the conversation!

 

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Toxic soup

I’ve noticed a propensity I have for blaming myself if something goes wrong with my body.  Particularly, I zero in on eating habits, exercise habits and the like.  And you know, that often IS a big part of the problem.  But this book I’m reading now, The Ultra Mind Solution: The Simple Way to Defeat Depression, Overcome Anxiety, and Sharpen Your Mind by Mark Hyman,  M.D., while supporting that as an essential factor to look at in disease, is also calling to mind external causes and internal causes over which we have no control – our genetic makeup.

This book is truly fascinating – broadening my perspective in so many ways and providing clear antidotes to the issues raised.

Example:  “Researchers from the Free University of Berlin discovered a new virus called Bornavirus found in the limbic system (or emotional center) of the brain in 30 percent of the population.  One in six people who carry the virus have depression and can be cured by treatment with short-term anti-viral medication.  Think about it: a virus can cause depression and treating the virus can cure, not just reduce the symptoms of, depression.  Even the best antidepressant drugs don’t’ cure depression.”- p. 181

In the chapter I read last night on detoxification Dr. Hyman gave an example of a patient named George who had 4 different gene abnormalities, all of which impaired the ability of the body to detoxify heavy metals.  That’s the loaded gun – the genetic predisposition.  George couldn’t do anything to change the loaded gun.  However, it was George’s environment – his exposure to mercury (among other ways through the fillings in his teeth) that pulled the trigger.

The great news for George – and for us, really – is that Dr. Hyman’s 7 steps towards ultra wellness and specific herbs, vitamins, nutritional recommendations, et al – provided a way for George’s body to clear the heavy overdose of mercury. 

By the way, George got to Dr. Hyman because of early onset dementia.  After clearing the mercury from his body he was able to resume a normal life.

So for Puritanical Diane who assumes all problems are from the other causes Dr. Hyman calls out (nutrition, etc.) it is eye-opening to consider that the toxic soup we all live in could be contributing to any malaise I might be having. For instance, almost every year since I’ve lived in my upscale Chicago suburb, we get a notice from the EPA about the heavy metals, including arsenic, in our water.  It always says “but this water is safer for human consumption.” Uh, yeah.

So, on my next doctor visit, I’m going to ask for some blood tests for heavy metals in the spirit of ‘can’t hurt, could help’.  And I’m forging ahead with the positive changes I continue to make in caring for my body/mind.

What’s your take?  Do you believe that our genes doom us to ill-health?  That it’s “luck” or “just the way it is”?  Do you  depend on drugs to save you if “bad luck” sends disease your way?  Or do you prefer Dr. Hyman’s approach?  As always, I really want to know!

 

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The Ultra Mind Solution – sneak preview

I haven’t written a book review in awhile and that’s mostly because my brain seems to be on summer vacation – lots of Words with Friends and magazines at night rather than reading. But I recently picked up a copy of Mark Hyman’s  2010 book The UltraMind Solution: The Simple Way to Defeat Depression, Overcome Anxiety, and Sharpen Your Mind.

My primary health care person, Lisa Decatorsmith of Healing Traditions of Barrington, had recommended Dr. Hyman’s Ultra Metabolism book to me a few years ago.  I read it and liked it and incorporated a lot of what he suggested at that time.  So when I saw this book I was intrigued.

I’m about 200 pages into it (about half way through) and it’s really good!  His evidence-based writing about the effects of various vitamins and minerals was so compelling that it got me into action about being more diligent about taking vitamins. 

He has compelling evidence on the perniciousness of sugar, which is really pushing me towards eliminating it entirely – I’m not there yet, but getting closer….

I’ve long believed that much of what we consider “our genes” or “bad luck” is, in fact, bad lifestyle choices.  I have believed that we have way more control over our physical health than most people seem to think.

But it’s intriguing to read about how much our lifestyle choices affect things like dementia, Alzheimer’s, forgetfulness that we associate with aging, or “mood disorders” such as depression, anxiety.  He makes a strong case that even things that I believed were intractable – bipolar disorder, autism, ADHD – can be ameliorated with nutrition, exercise and the like.

He believes, as I do, that people aren’t born with a Prozac deficiency (just as we aren’t born with a Lipitor deficiency). 

I’m very intrigued by this book and you’ll be hearing more about it – with quotes – from me.

How about you?  Have you read The Ultra Mind solution?  Have you seen changes in your cognition or moods based on what you eat, how much you sleep, the exercise  you get?  I know for me, on the infrequent times I have suffered from depression exercise is 100% guaranteed to alleviate it.  I’m curious to hear your stories!  As always, I really want to know!

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“The gift of powerlessness”

Sundays are Spirituality Day here at Taking it to the Streets

I think of my spiritual life as a river, flowing to the sea.  The sea (and thus all that is part of it) is God.  The river is the main tributary, but it has many creeks and even other rivers feeding it.

For me, that central river to the sea is The Twelve Steps.  Oh, there are other rivers (Buddhism, a lifelong connection to Mother Mary, etc.), but the 12 Steps are the core.  It’s my opinion that Bill Wilson was divinely inspired. Each time I read his writings (and I do so very often) I am amazed at the wisdom he coagulated into one place.  He truly did provide a guide for living.

Right now I’m reading a book on the 12 Steps:  Recovery:  The Twelve Steps as Spiritual Practice by Rami Shapiro.  Rami is a rabbi and a professor of religious studies. This book incorporates teachings from world religions into commentary on the twelve steps, as well as Rabbi Shapiro’s own thoughts.

I just finished reading Step One “The Gift of Powerlessness” and found it insightful, and challenging and a good springboard for my own thoughts on Step One.

Step one is the door in.  It’s the beginning.  It’s the “I surrender” that gets us to 12 step programs.  For though many truly feel it’s the gift of the lifetime, I don’t think anyone feels that way on day one.  Because what gets most of us into 12 steps programs is this:

“We admitted we were powerless over {alcohol, food, people, gambling, etc —- LIFE} and that our lives had become unmanageable.”

Yikes!  especially in America – who on earth wants to say “Hey, my life is spinning out of control and I’m clueless on how to stop that.”

Pretty much no one.

“The wording of Step One masks the deeper discovery we make when we actually take the Step.  Step One says we are powerless over our addiction.  It doesn’t say we are powerless over life.  Yet as we begin to face the fact of our powerlessness, we discover that, in fact, we are powerless over life.  We cannot control what happens to us. All we can do is work with what happens moment to moment.” – p. 2

Wow.  So that gets even scarier.  I still want to think that I do indeed have some control – me, with my lists, my goals, my plans, my Hard Work.  I mean really, doesn’t Hard Work count for SOMETHING?

“The fundamental and paradoxical premise of Twelve Step recovery as I experience it is this: The more clearly you realize your lack of control, the more powerless you discover yourself to be.  The more powerless you discovery yourself to be, the more natural it is for you to be surrendered to God.  The more surrendered to God you become, the less you struggle against the natural flow of life.  The less you struggle against the flow of life, the freer your become. Radical powerlessness is radical freedom, liberating you from the need to control the ocean of life and freeing you to learn how best to navigate it.”

Now THAT is the gift of powerlessness.  Freedom and liberation – with that Rabbi Shapiro is talking my language.

When I discovered this spiritual path, I was sharing my non-joy about it with my brother (as I said, this is not a path one enters joyfully, and often not willingly).  Wise George said “oh, good – now you can stop being The Doer of All Things.”

Uh, yeah – I guess my younger siblings may have had my number.  Because from age 3 on, I truly believed that if I tried harder, worked harder, was tougher – then I could keep chaos at bay.

I could not.

The first sentence of this book is:

“Here is the heart of Twelve Step recovery – quit playing God!”  He goes on to say that what that means is to quit pretending that life is controllable.

In fact, Shapiro states that it’s THIS addiction – ‘the obsessive quest for control’ – rather than the substances, activities or persons to which we THINK we are addicted – that is the real problem.  Most people in recovery get that it is their thinking that is the real problem – but this specificity  – that it is our thinking we can control things – was a new thought to me.

“…if you think you can control life you will act to control life, and doing so will invite consequences that will be excruciatingly painful to you and to those who about you.”

I’ve thought about step one, about powerlessness, about the crazy thinking that underlies addiction and chaos.  Thought about it and read about it for a very long time.   And I’ve always known step three (we’ll get to that later) is about giving up control – thus the scariest step for me.  But thinking about step one in a new way has been thought-provoking.  I find that The Doer of All Things feels a bit panicky about it initially. And then, yes, if I can actually believe that life is uncontrollable BY ME, but that there IS a unifying force-field, a sea to which this river runs, and that it is good – well, I can settle back into the raft, no matter how wild the ride and trust that the Sea is calling to me. Calling me home.  Where I already am.

What if Bob Marley was right?

“Don’t worry
about a thing
Cuz every little thing
is gonna be alright.”

Powerlessness as a gift.  It just may be.  What do YOU think?

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Listening Below the Noise by Anne D LeClaire

I recently finished Listening Below the Noise:  The  Transformative Power of Silence by Anne D LeClaire.  Though I’m rather garrulous when with people, I actually spend a lot of time at home alone in silence and find I enjoy it.  I also meditate somewhat regularly (though improvements could be made) so being alone with silence is not scary, nor foreign to me.

However, Anne LeClaire took it a step further.  She gifted herself with two totally silent days per month for many years.  That seems a bit daunting to me, especially as she routinized it – the second and fourth Monday.  What if your cousin was coming to town and would only be there on the second Monday?  What if you were a published author (she is) and your publisher wanted you to give a talk on a fourth Monday?

She had some of the same misgivings and plowed ahead anyway.  The insights she garnered from the silence were interesting.  Even more so, were the insights she garnered from the whole process of this committment – the fighting with self, the doubts, the criticisms or resentments of people in her life.

I’m realizing as I write this how much I rely on underlining important passages to help me remember all the things I loved about a book I’ve read – even one I read last week.  Alas, this book was one borrowed from a friend so I have no such signposts.

What I do know is that I had a lot of “uh, huhs, I know that feeling” insights.  And some “whoa! that sounds too hard!” and a little bit of curiosity – what would it be like to be still – truly still regularly.

My favorite part of the book was when she did a week long retreat at a cabin she and her husband own on Cape Cod.  She spent a week without speaking – but also without paying attention to time, to any media.  Eating when hungry, sleeping when tired, being in nature a lot.  That reminded me very much of the good part of summers as a child and that part, arguably the most rigorous, also sounded the most magical.

I know that the lack of silence can be very jarring for me. I don’t watch TV at all.  Mostly listen to music in the car.  Only occasionally listen to the radio at home. When I go somewhere (oil change, doctor’s office, etc.) where a TV is on if I’m there alone I turn it off.  And I don’t look or feel guilty when others come in befuddled -like, where’s the TV? Where’s the distraction.

When I meditate I always think “Why don’t I do this EVERY day?” – it’s delicious.  But still, I don’t.

We live in a noisy world – silence is a gift. And having it for more than minutes – a full day, for instance – no doubt uncovers many treasures – and a few demons.

How about you?  What does the thought of two full days of silence per month bring up for you?  Do you spend any time in silence now? What’s that like for you? As always, I really want to know!

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Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience by Sharon Salzberg

Buddhism – in its American incarnation – has long informed my spiritual path.  So Sharon Salzberg is someone I’d heard of for years.  I’ve picked up her book Lovingkindness more than once, but just hadn’t yet felt drawn to read any of her works.

When I came across her book on faith, however, I was intrigued.  Faith to me has seemed associated with theism in general, the Abrahamic religions in particular.  How would a Buddhist talk about faith?

The subtitle gives the first clue:  trusting your own deepest experience, rather than “following God’s word” or the precepts of a given religion.

The first four pages set up a conundrum with that subtitle, though.  Salzberg’s childhood was a crazy quilt of extreme tragedy.  Reading her simple account of family life gone terribly wrong, I felt it was inevitable that she either become a deeply spiritual person or a crazy person herself. 

I compared her in another post to Viktor Frankl or Anne Frank.  Her circumstances, extreme as they were, did not rival being in Aushchwitz (Frankl) or murdered by Nazis (Frank).  But like them, she turned ‘unfair’ suffering into gold by her response to it.

She quotes Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the democracy movement in Myanmar/Burma:

“There is darkness in the world, but it is merely an absence of light.  All the darkness in the world cannot dispel even the smallest candle flame.  We need only to accustom ourselves to the dim vision, and then the blessing of light will grow.”

The books is most decidedly based on her Buddhist beliefs, and she applies the Four Noble Truths and the insights she has gained from years of meditation to the question of how we maneuver life amidst the suffering, chaos and delight – all of it.

Meditation – for Salzberg, and indeed for me – reminds us that everything passes. Everything.  “There is a far bigger picture to life than what we are facing in any particular moment” (p 127).  It helps us gain perspective.  To be at peace.  To just BE.

Sprinkled throughout the book are personal vignettes.   Salzberg, along with Joseph Goldstein and Ram Dass, was part of the early vanguard of American Buddhism.  With Goldstein she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. 

But she doesn’t ‘name drop’ or self-aggrandize. On the contrary, she shares her human-ness with us and just simply illustrates how Buddhist teachings on meditation, kindness, compassion, the ephemeral nature of life have helped her to deepen, and to live a fully authentic life despite the inevitability of suffering.

I loved this:

“But if that inevitable sorrow is joined with faith in interconnectedness, rather than bitterness at the nature of things, we can more likely get up the next morning and once again do the best we can, knowing that in this inter-connected reality, even the smallest action done with good intention is consequential.”

I really loved this book and will soon be reading more from Salzberg.  I “liked” her page on FaceBook and am enjoying the updates there as well.

And I liked that, for me, she reclaimed the idea of ‘faith’ – which had become for me a sort of ‘bullying’ word used by zealots to beat on “non-believers”.  In my worldview (not hers perhaps) it is having faith in an immanent God and essential goodness – and then putting THAT faith into action that is a faith I can live with.

How about you?  Have you read any of Sharon Salzberg’s books?  What does faith look like to you?  As always, I really want to know!

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Maurice Sendak – Rest in Peace

I feel sad about Maurice Sendak’s death.  I don’t have children and I was way past my own childhood when his books arrived on the scene.   But as a former bookseller and a doting aunt/grandaunt, I’m quite familiar with “Where the Wild Things Are” and “In the Night Kitchen” – magical works, both.

The illustrations are enchanting, even if sometimes a bit scary.  The characters – Max in “Where The Wild Things Are” and Mickey in “In the Night Kitchen” – are very endearing.

What I love the most, though, is how Sendak weaves in much bigger messages amidst his simple tales.

I’ve long used “In the Night Kitchen” as the absolute best explanation of the immanent and transcendent nature of God, in this simple illustration/phrase:  “I’m in the milk and the milk’s in me!”

Indeed.

And now this complex, deep, fanciful and sometimes haunted man, Maurice Sendak has returned to Source.  The scary monsters all vanquished, at one with the Milk-ness of life.  Rest in peace, you have delighted so many.  And thanks.

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No instruction manual – more wisdom from Anne Lamott

Sundays are Spirituality Day here at Taking it to the Streets

“But there was not such a day in school.  No one got the instructions.  That is the secret of life.  Everyone is flailing around, winging it most of the time, trying to find the way out, or through, or up, without a map.  This lack of instruction manual is how most people develop compassion, and how they figure out to show up, care, help and serve, as the only way of filling up and being free.  Otherwise, you grow up to be someone who needs to dominate and shame others, so no one will know that you weren’t there the day the instructions were passed out.” – Anne Lamott from Some Assembly Required

How often have you heard people say that they felt they weren’t there the day the instructions were given out? For me the most recent instance was yesterday.  And I have sure felt it.  From the most practical of skills (oh! if the door is sagging and won’t close you just tighten the hinges? Got it…) to the deeper wisdom of the advanced courses in the School of Life (that would be relationships).

I’ve surely thought that myself – “I wasn’t there the day the instruction manual was passed out” and I’ve even noticed that I am NOT unique in this regard.  What I had NOT done was to tie that feeling to being a birthplace of compassion.

See?  This is why I love Anne Lamott!

I should put this on my refrigerator and in my phone – maybe as an appointment with a reminder that goes off once a day:

“This lack of instruction manual is how most people develop compassion, and how they figure out to show up, care, help and serve, as the only way of filling up and being free.”

From October 2010 through February 2011 I found myself on a very unexpected trajectory.  My beloved friend Becky was abruptly diagnosed with liver cancer and 111 days after the diagnosis, she died. Maybe  you got the instruction manual on walking a 46-year-old friend Home, but I did not.  Neither did her partner, her mom and sister, her best friends, or the kids in her daycare, Huggy House.  We made it up as we went along.  I can’t speak for the others, but I know for me that amidst the shock and grief, I found a deep wellspring of purpose, love, compassion, and, oddly, joy.  No, I was not joyous about losing an amazing woman.  Or watching those even closer to her than I suffer so intensely.  Of course not.  But the joy in service, the joy in compassion and love, the joy in being fully present to each moment – even the truly awful ones – that joy was very real and abiding.

It is when we give that we truly receive.  It is when I can step outside of my insane, selfish I-want-what-I-want-when-I-want-it Ego and really get that we are all one and that the Universe is held together with love – and I can be part of the whole teeming, wild stir fry of life that I feel most alive (well, that is tied with riding my motorcycle – I’m committed to telling you the truth).

How about you?  Do you feel like you were missing school the day they gave out the Life Instruction Book?  And what do you make of this idea of showing up, caring, helping and serving being the only true, predictable way to lasting happiness?  I really want to know!

And — buy Some Assembly Required.  You’re gonna love it!

 

From the site http://3wordsfor365.com/2012/04/08/compassion-compassionate/

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Some Assembly Required – by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott’s newest book is a treasure trove for diehard Anne Lamott fans (like me) and a perfect introduction to this delightful, funny and deep writer for new readers.  It pulls together into one book the things I love best about her writing:

• It’s as hilariously funny as all of her books
• Like Operating Instructions, her hilarious book about her son Sam’s first year of life, this one is about family – in this case, about the first year of her grandson Jax’s life (yes, Sam is now a father!)
• Like Travelling Mercies and Plan B, it is filled with spiritual wisdom, much of it springing from a 12-Step perspective, none of it heavy-handed

First, the funny part.  I read Operating Instructions years ago when I was commuting to a job in the city on the commuter train.  The morning train ride was filled with sleepy, reading, quiet riders -library-like in contrast to the more rollicking evening ride home.  There’s a part in Operating Instructions in which Anne describes her cat’s reaction to her bringing home her baby that was hilarious – so hilarious in fact that I laughed really loudly, garnering about 10 angry stares. What can I say – she really is THAT funny.

I read Some Assembly Required in the quiet of my home and also found myself literally laughing out loud.  Her humor is wicked, often self-deprecating and wry.  There’s this part in Some Assembly Required about a trip she took to India.  A monkey got caught in her dreadlocks (another thing to love about our Annie – she may be the only white woman I know of who has really great dreads); she chased away beggars by ominously shouting “EnRaHa!”.  And then there are little asides:  “This morning’s riverboat man said, ‘Too much the foggy!’ which I think captures all of human life.”

The humor is often part of the spiritual message.  Anne doesn’t take herself too seriously – well, rather, when she DOES take herself too seriously – as we all do – she ‘tells on herself.’  These bits are some of the funniest, most human and most spiritual parts of the entire book.  She is constantly wanting to “help” her son and his girlfriend in their parenting and decision-making and then she catches herself.  “It is the most difficult Zen practice to leave people to their destiny, even though it’s painful – just loving them, and breathing with them, and distracting them in a sweet way, and laughing with them.”

Since I have been known – oh, once or twice – to be “helpful” to poor souls who have never asked for even an iota of my infinite wisdom, I can totally relate to this theme throughout the book.  Anne talks about getting so desperate that is “forced to call the horrible Bonnie” for spiritual advice.  Like Anne, when I call my Wise Woman, I’m always shocked that she tells me that it’s none of my business.  And no, that person does not need my wisdom and advice and ‘help’ – they just need me to listen and love them.  Oy!

This book is also so very much about family.  Anne writes about her family of origin in most of her works – I feel as though I know them in many ways. This book is very focused on family – on her barely 20-year old son Sam, his girlfriend Amy and their son, her grandson, Jax.  And her brother, and uncle and the whole clan. She also talks lovingly about some of the folks in her ‘family of choice’ – her inner circle of dear friends old and new.  It’s one of many things I most love about her and her books and to which I most relate, being very family-centric myself.

And there’s the deep river of spirituality running through this book, as through most of Anne’s nonfiction.  I share Anne’s love of the twelve steps, and it seems that for her, as for me, that is the central river of her rich spirituality.  Hers is very much infused with a deep connection to her church as well.  she speaks so lovingly of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church that I just want to fly to San Francisco and check it out.

Look, this book is just close to perfect.  Easy and fun to read, but filled with all those “ya, I’m like that too” moments and deep, enduring spiritual wisdom. Let me leave you with just three quotes – from the dozens I’ve underlined, to whet your appetite.  No, these probably aren’t the BEST ones (it’s making decisions like that which  has caused me to delay writing to you about this great book) but they were three that spoke to me.

“It’s always the same old problem:  how to fin ourselves in the great yammering of ego and tragedy and discomfort and obsession with everyone else’s destinies.” (p 162)

“I’ve always thought I could use my brain and my heart to jockey everyone around to the good.  But life is not jockeyable.  When you try, you make people infinitely crazier thanb they already were, including or especially yourself.” (p 85)

“Temporarily unable to remember what city I was in, I said ‘I just want to go back to – wherever it is that I am.’  Then I realized that this was possibly the most brilliant thing I have ever said.  All I have to do for a shot at salvation is go back to where I am, and that means wherever my feet are, not my poor old pinball head.” (p 210)

I love Anne Lamott.  I just do.  She’s smart, silly, spiritual.  And those dreadlocks!  And I love this book.  If you like family, if you struggle with trying to be the best family member you can (or just the best human you can), if you walk a spiritual path, if you’re a mom, grandma – or simply like babies – you’re going to love, love, love this book!

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Our spiritual/earthly dual citizenship (thanks, Anne Lamott!)

Sundays are Spirituality Day here at Taking it to the Streets

“I think about the idea of his having dual citizenship – a child of God and heaven, with a human life here – and how confusing that has always been for me.  And what he is in for, because our spiritual and human identities coexist, the way light is both a particle and a wave.” – Anne Lamott from Some Assembly Required (p.74)

I LOVE this explanation and love that she ties it to quantum physics (which I am attempting to dip my toes into studying).

I’m with Annie on this one – it IS confusing.  I’ve had those moments where (my world view) my Soul kind of stands back and says “well, kid, it’s the only way you’re gonna learn this one” as my Ego just rails against God.

But often they do seem to team together.  I know my worldly self seems mostly unaware of its Soul-sister counterpart, unless something happens to call it to mind.  I wonder if that’s true of the Soul – does She stay in tune with my earthly travails?  Do they matter to her beyond the obvious (I think of life as a school and I suspect Soul wants EarthGirl to get her homework done well).

What’s your take on this marvelous quote?  And have  you read Anne Lamott?  If not, you simply must!  She’s deep, spiritually profound, in love with the 12-steps and over the top funny.  This kind of funny: Reading her book about her son’s first year of life (Operating Instructions) I laughed out loud so robustly on the library-like morning commuter train that about 10 people turned to glare at me.  she’s THAT funny.  This book is about her grandson’s first year of life.  Get it!

 

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