Yeah, so you know how I’m into glam rock, right?
Not really, but what I am into is calling down the good for oneself from the Universe or God or whomever or whatever you subscribe to, right?
So I’ve had a sinus infection on board this ship now twice in the last 3 months. First time, I panicked and went to the ship’s doctor and asked for whatever he had. He gave me something that he called antibiotics. Took them. Crap lasted for almost three weeks anyway.
Now, I got it again. Not quite sure how, as I was sitting at a bar in Ibiza when I felt my throat close up. AND NO, NO ONE ELSE WAS INVOLVED PHYSICALLY, though there were plenty there with whom I would have happily shared an std or two…
I’m now into week two, and there are signs of improvement. The thing is, I’ve not taken any meds. Just relaxed and tried to sleep, which is no small feat when one wakes oneself up every 10 minutes for a throat slicing coughing fit.
So while I’m eating a bit of fish at dinner tonight, minding my own business, as I know you know I do, a fellow entertainment department person walks up to me and inquires about my current health status. I tell him that I’m feeling better, and thank you. He then proceeds to lay it on me that, when he starts to feel run down or sick, he tells himself (I don’t know what vehicle he uses for this communication – I didn’t ask) that he is NOT going to get sick. He uses his own power of reality to instruct his body to keep from letting his immune system fail.
Now, you all know that, as I’m so very inspiring, I’m hoping soon to work as an inspirational speaker or dancer or yodeler… something in the motivational realm. Yet, as one who is currently working on material to use to spew into the faces of countless thousands business and lay people in the near future with nothing to arm themselves against my onslaught other than a convention authority pad and pen and a cup of hotel coffee.
As I sat contemplating how my friend was making me feel (he was still talking but I’d completely checked out for self appraisal, plus I was weary of him) an unhealthy green cloud of something started to swirl around me. Not hate, not dislike, but something that instantly said, “No, not that.”
Then I got mad. I’ve been doing all that myself, and it wasn’t working on the time frame that I wanted, but as of today, there was progress. But his story was so matter of fact that it made it sound like his proposition had never occurred to me – even though I’m sure he’s not the intellectual to consider that possibility. He was just being helpful.
And it pissed me off. As I sat there with his hopeful, if not self-centric, words washed over me, all I could think about was how I want to help people through sharing stories and hopes and dreams with them. But this new fly in the ointment was going to make that much more difficult. Why? Because now I was going to have to live the credo that I believe that I learned from the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, that being the belief that everyone is inherently Creative, Resourceful and Whole. I had to operate from the perception that I can’t talk to people in order to fix them. I have to treat everyone with respect, not as if they’re broken.
And as I type this, I’m comforted and thankful for my friend, who innocently offered his advice/help, and, in doing so, he opened my eyes to a huge world view that I’d not considered much.
So instead of getting pissed off at something that some idiot says to you today, what if you sat with the feelings that it gave you, and search for a different perspective that the incident might give you? What would that look like?
Hey, you may discover that they’re really an idiot after all. But you can certainly enjoy your hot toddy later knowing that you tried. Some people just can’t be fixed!
That’s what I’d do…
