Healing Life Hacks

How to Get Gold Out of Life’s Crap

It’s in there. I promise.

Here’s a trick most of us miss. There’s lots of talk about jolly signs, synchronicities, repeating numbers, appearing feathers, odd happenings, and the like. But little about how our darker side arrives right under our noses. That’s because it disguises itself as exasperating (or worse) events. “It’s not me, it’s them!” Ah, wishful thinking, friends.

An example.

We bought a house to renovate and sell. Eleven years in, I hated it. With a passion. The time, the money, the constant disasters, its never-ending-ness…

All of it.

So naturally, I dreaded heading down there for ten days. The usual post-departure cleaning, organizing the cats, the plants, my breakfasts, (I’m big on breakfast. It gets me out of bed.), had me cursing, and complaining nonstop.

I know. Charming.

Finally on the metro with my wheelie suitcase, a flash realization froze me. I’d forgotten my computer’s charger. I WAS GOING TO SPEND 10 DAYS IN NO-INTERNET-LAND DOING WHAT NOW????? Too late to turn back, I resigned myself to my fate.

Then the fun began.

I bypassed my usual stop to test another change-over point. My habitual station had many ups and downs (Steep stairs leading to a major train station. Why?) This station was brand spanking new. Bound to be well thought out.

HA!

Longer, darker corridors (Someone’s idea of arty, no doubt) and even more stairs. But hey, I have plenty of time because I’m so smart. (Every time I write something like that, add ‘not’ to it.) Well, folks, the train abruptly halted three express stops before my exit. Everyone off!

Now what? Where was I? Was there another line to my train station? I ran up to the tiny metro map glued in a dark corner. No matter how hard I squinted, it was impossible to read. I had to resort to the last dreaded resort.

Humans.

First, the young man who looked at me with wide, frightened rabbit eyes, ready to bolt if I broke eye contact. Granted I was now mightily pissed off though I tried to keep it under wraps. Not his fault, after all. He blurted out he didn’t know and bolted.

Liar.

I spied three women gathered in their little coffee klatsch at the end of the platform. (These are all Paris metro system employees mind you.) They launched into a long and hearty decision of the best way to go. Um, thanks, never mind. No time! Because, yes, now I was running out of time.

What’s that? A well-lit map? Nirvana! Take the 7 line and switch. OK. Up and down corridors, staircases. (Paris metro stations are straight out of an Escher drawing.)

Mowing people down mercilessly, I got to the platform and… The subway door closed in my face.

Four minutes until the next metro. Followed by a fifteen-minute ride. I careen to the other line, the line 6. My train is at 6PM. The Universe loves a joke.

Funny. Not.

I burst into the train station at 6:07. Maybe the train was late. It was often late… Empty track. My ship had sailed.

I wilt into a corner to summon up the energy to buy another ticket. Turns out there’s a no reservation train two hours later and my ticket is good for it. Well, that’s something.

I buy a café latte and my favorite muffin (Almost breakfast!) and went to sit in the rain with the pigeons. (Yes, I am feeling sorry for myself.) As I picked at blueberry and sugar crumbs, I knew it was all my doing. My constant negativity about the house, hating going… Well, here I was. Mission accomplished. I was not at the house.

At least temporarily.

I did learn something. Pigeons are very fond of blueberry muffins. I suspect they are very fond of everything. Hang on. Is that the message?

What this means to you.

How has this shown up in your life? Because it has. How often is your high aggro or a low point a byproduct of what you’ve been harboring inside?

Time to change this. And the way to change this 99% of the time? Exactly what the pigeons showed me — accept what is there. Accept what is happening, and lean into it. “Everything is perfect”, my 91-year-old friend Vivianne says. And you should hear the life she had, like when her sister died and her mother decided it was not necessary to feed Vivianne anymore. For a number of years.

Note, I did not say accept it and don’t do anything about it. But, in the moment, resist not. Float with it. Move gently.

Do bad days for no reason exist? Sure. But internally driven bad days will show up again and again. And we’ll flail about, gnashing our teeth, shaking our fists at the sky.

Totally missing the point.

Or in my case, missing this train. Prior to this, I’d boarded with (Unbeknownst to me and I booked it!) a ticket for the next day. That baby cost me 100 euros over the 28 euro I’d already paid. The ticket collector charged me the maximum fare plus penalty. (Yep, energy in, energy out.) The time before that my train was at 3:15 but I thought it left at 5:15. (I truly started to fear for my mind)

If doing this in your life seems like mission impossible, here’s a little help.

NEWS ALERT. I did come to accept the house. I realized it was something my husband needed to do. It did not make sense to me but, it did to him. It was his folly. He works hard and deserves it if he wants it.

The next time I went down after deciding this, he announced over dinner — “This is crazy. I need to finish the basics and we should sell.”

Well, all righty now. Like I said, accept. It works in amazing ways.

If you want to meet over a latte with the pigeons and moi, drop me a comment or email me at [email protected]

Know when I’m about! Hit the email thingie to get a message! Much Love and Great Blessings… DL