Inspiration

Wisdom Could Show Up In Every Corner…Or Is In Every Corner…

It Requires Us To Discover For It To Endure

“Eko! I remember you! Welcome back!” Three sentences. Kindness rendered. Made my morning during a mammogram. Paola did that! Two years in a row! My first two mammograms!

Turned 50 last year. My GP wouldn’t listen to my ‘logic,’ saying nay to some of the tests. She looked at me and said, “Make the damn appointment, and stop talking!” I laughed. She knows me well.

Her persistence led me to meet Paola for the second time yesterday morning. The experience that was supposed to be mundane and methodical became the kind of moment when I discovered a new coffee shop and met a barista that could lullaby me with Voltaire to Lao Tzu.

Paola offered me two pearls of wisdom last year, and I wrote them in one of my 2021 diaries. Instead of digging those, I’ll share the two that she graciously relayed with firm and kind eyes this year.

“Don’t go to the zoo looking for lions. There are lions right here, in your head! Tame them, and your health will be better!”

She and I talked about how a mammogram could be hard for some women. When I was in my early 20s, I told her that I imagined myself having cup D breasts. It might sound vain, but at ages 20, 21, and 22, I’d love to run and have my breasts jiggle. It feels like I do have breasts!!

She laughed. She shook her head. “ No, you didn’t want that! Especially you’re short like me!” She shared that she didn’t enjoy having big breasts, too many problems. And a mammogram is painful. She wasn’t the only one who told me that. Some other women had shared their experiences with me.

We spoke about pain. She experienced physical pain all year long last year. She contributed to her dad's sudden death because of a heart attack and some family members’ passing due to COVID. She shared that she was in so much sorrow; the pain was uncontrollable in all aspects: physical, mental, and emotional.

This year is different for her. A week before New Year, she decided to say enough of the sadness. She said my dad promised he’ll never be far away, and my aunts and uncles who passed away were had a full life, so there wasn’t any point in staying in mourning.

She experiences no pain this year as she tames her lions. “The lions are right here, in your head. So, don’t go looking for them at the zoo. Just tame these! You’ll be alright!”

“We are all miracles. To breathe is a miracle.”

“Looks good! It’s almost the same like last year! We’re done!” I thanked her, and she walked me out of the room. At the door, she looked at me, “You’re a miracle! All of us are! To breathe is a miracle! I’ll see you next year!”

There wasn’t a better way to send me off; in fact, no better way to send anyone off. She gave me the courage to face the real world outside that little room. She provided a damn good reason why I need not make excuses to go through the necessary health precautions.

It isn’t because I have to. It’s because I am a miracle. Ah…!

It started as an ordinary morning. Going for a mammogram. I left with two pearls of wisdom in my heart and mind.

Wisdom is never one way. It requires giving and receiving. That’s the way wisdom stays alive.

When wisdom is given and received, it is marked in someone else’s heart and mind. If wisdom is given and not received, would it be floating somewhere? Or would it be wasted?

Wisdom is never a waste. It definitely floats. And like everything else in life, the direction may not matter as much as it exists somewhere in our breaths. When the right moment comes, we will inhale it. Then, it will be a part of us.

This is why Marcel Proust’s quote resonates deeply in my heart.

“ We don’t receive wisdom. We must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.” ( Marcel Proust)

As wisdom is discovered, it continues to float. Its destination is found in every Soul who is ready to discover it. Or, in daily language, it is a simplicity of “staying positive,” “feeling everything,” and “everything will find its way to an okay.”

The more we are ready to give and willing to receive, the higher our chances to discover wisdom.

Wisdom is in every corner of our existence. It certainly is in every corner of mine. Today, at this very moment, I am a tiny bit wiser than I was before 9:30am yesterday.

Paola's two pearls of wisdom are engraved in my heart and mind.

“Tame my lion in my head,” and take care of me because “ I am a miracle.”

For those two pearls of wisdom to endure, I am sharing them with all of you and hoping that you discover them.

My companion for this article is my beautiful discovery of a great Soul, Jenine Bsharah Baines. Her wisdom that resonates deeply with me is called “sacred ordinary.” I am in the same boat as her. The sacredness of the ordinary. If Paola said, “we are all miracles,” then… our ordinary ought to be sacred.