Blessings from the Santa Fe hills between thunderstorms

Well I’ve made every attempt to make this a dlive livestream, but it’s just not happening on this iPad, so letting it go.

What I want to share with you are all the miraculous ways blessings can find their way to us when we resist their coming the direct route. By miraculous I also mean unfortunate, suffering, lemons indeed.

We don’t always cooperate with the blessing Spirit is trying to send to all the parts of itself, so then we get these misfortunes. The challenge is to create a habit of looking for sugar and water immediately, knowing that we are never given lemons unless the intent is that we use them to make lemonade.

A recent such event for me was hurting my back on the way to the airport a couple weeks ago. Because I did that, I missed my plane.

Now in the weeks before that I went from a 4 bedroom house to a 7x7 storage box without hurting my back. But packing that last suitcase into the car to go to the airport I injure my back very badly. I didn’t even need to do it. I thought that morning that I could ask some of my neighbors to help and they’d be glad to, but I didn’t want to bother them. So I tried to lift something half my body weight up above my waist.

Since being here in Santa Fe, all my plans have been thwarted. I had intended to explore a great deal on foot. In fact my car rental doesn’t even start until tomorrow. I chose a central location so I could do that. Well a few days ago I changed rentals so that now I’m out in the hills in the beauty and quiet of nature, and have given up on the idea of exploring the creations of humankind by foot.

I’ve also received many blessings from the injury, despite it being painful and constant work to manage and improve. The first blessing occurred the very first day I was injured, in that I was around to go to a party with old friends that I really needed to go to, but would not have stayed the extra day for if given a choice. So I wasn’t given a choice other than to say yes or no when invited to be taken to the party.

I was given the choice to sulk on my misfortune of add some sugar and water and go to the party.

It wound up being perfect closure to my time in San Francisco area, spending time with my first group of friends from when I moved there in my early 20s and sharing stories of everyone’s “lemons to lemonade” experiences of unexpected blessing. It wound up being quite the magical night of blessing for all of us, not just me. And so it often is. Spirit also blesses others through our misfortunes sometimes.

And the blessings didn’t end with that one night....

While here I’ve also had some of the most incredible conversations and mini-relationships with Lyft drivers, massage therapists, naturapathic doctors, and strangers in restaurants. I’ve had little else I’ve been able to do. And that has given me the space to realize how much I normally fill space when I don’t really need to. I pursue this or that, just for the sake of feeling like progress is being made, yet already have everything I need. Ready to settle into that new way of relating to each day.

Also ready to settle into letting people help me, a lot! I’ve three times now had senior citizens actually helping me with my bags or groceries! One friend said to me as she was helping me put groceries into her car, after taking me on a quick trip to the grocery store to stock my kitchen, “You aren’t good at letting people help you, are you? When we get to your place, I’m going to carry these inside for you too!” Asking for help. Letting people help me. What a novel idea.

And this morning, as I sit here on the deck between the thunderstorms, I experience yet more blessing. A buck visited my garden to have breakfast with me, him munching on foliage and me on fruit and oatmeal. And this afternoon I’ll go enjoy tea and pie with my hosts at their place up the hill. What else will flow, I don’t know, but I know it will be enough.

When you look at your life, do you see the evidence of how loved you are?

Do you recall any times when it seemed like something bad was happening to you, but it wound up paving the path to great blessing?

That’s in your personal life, but what about in your country? Can you see how truly horrible events, decisions and experiences have been necessary parts of a path to the world you truly want, one way better than the one you had before the lemons came?

What’s the sugar and water for you to add to that collective mix? And how much can you enjoy your time in that kitchen?

My breakfast visitor munching on yucca in the garden