Saturday, November 6, 2010

Life's a Roller Coaster- Really?


Keep your hands in at all times, until the ride comes to a stop.  The burning in the back of your throat is not included in the ride.   The acid that lurched from the pit of your stomach as you dropped for the first loop-de-loop finds a perfect spot to assault, right on the ledge of your larynx.  Oh but wait— here comes the exhilarating corkscrew!  The tugging of the muscles in your neck as your head pin-balls back and forth against the rock hard cushions is an added bonus.  The g-force and inertia makes the whoopies swirl low in your gut, causing you to losing your breath.  When the ride comes to a stop your hands hurt from clinging to the “oh sh*t” bar and your lips are glued to your teeth.

Who made up the analogy, life is like a roller coaster?  Do we really need to be told about the ups and downs, twists and turns, dips and swells?  Can’t we approach our lives like we do the amusement park rides— with blissful ignorance and the excitement of the unknown?  

I’d like to know when we thought life could be harnessed and controlled.  When was “life” ever planned?  Don’t get me wrong, (I tend to say that a lot lately) if you planned a vacation to Disneyland or Hawaii, GREAT, PERFECT, and take me with you.  Fortunately, that isn’t that “planned” I was talking about.  I’m talking about trying to predict or control the uncontrollable.  Things happen, change always occurs, and we infinitely have no idea what the future will bring. 
 
So let’s just call it a day and cash in all our chips— right?  

Wrong!  

Even though we don’t know what the future holds and we can’t stop change from coming or events from happening, it doesn’t excuse us from the responsibility of how we react to it.  We can’t change or define another person, just as they can’t define or change who we are.   We can’t control earthquakes or the weather.  And we sure in hell can’t plan change.  That is automatic.  Every day, every moment, change is taking place in and around us.  

We can only control how we react to it.  We can plan how we want our lives to be and prepare for a future ripe with health and prosperity.  We do that by~ eating right, staying physically active and working towards financial freedom (cause and effect).  But sometimes in our world things can come up and bite us when we least expect it.  That is the “oh sh*t” moment we realize we are strapped in for the ride.  How are we going to take it?  How are we going to react to the loop-de-loops, corkscrews and drops?   Will we laugh, cry, or try to catch our breaths?
 
Sure there are other rides we can choose.  We can hop on the Merry-Go-Round and if we’re lucky the carousel horse might go up and down.  But if not, we are stuck going in circles, on a stationary bench.  Did you dream of that when you were little?  …I didn’t think so.
    
Expectations, reactions, beliefs, and rituals are “things” we can plan, predict or control.  Those are the “things” we can manipulate and conquer.  Sometimes we think we are stuck in a crappy situation and we don’t even begin to see the end to the means.  All we see is the situation that captured our happiness and brought the misery into our experiences.
 
And hey, I’ll be the first to admit; this week grabbed me by the throat and pulled me deep into the quicksand of self doubt, frustration and emotional pain.  I chose to let forces outside of myself dictate who and what I was.  I chose to react to definitions people thrust upon me.  I allowed events to sneak up and hijack my life, and instead of choosing to change how I reacted to it, I tried to control it.  Sure, I thought I could fit that square peg into that round hole, because let’s face it— we all try, at some point in our lives, to defy the law of science.
  
Whether it’s the law of cause and effect, attraction, or gravity, even when we know damn well, the law is the law.  It can’t bend or change for us.
 
So the next time when a tough day rolls over me, I have to remember—I have the choice to how I react.  I can either stomp on the flaming paper bag filled with dog poop on my front porch and deal with all the crap or I can grab the fire extinguisher.
 
It was just too bad that last week~ my extinguisher needed to be recharged .
 
But as the saying goes, tomorrow is a new day.  And lucky for me, I’ve got a choice.




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