And all of a sudden, puberty? Day 3

So, yea, I hadn"t considered one thing... what do you do when you have a zit?  Today, I have become a zit face out of no where.  I don't really care about zits... as long as they are, um, deflated.  But, all throughout the day today, I have found several that needed deflating.  What the heck? 

I was reminded today of a Radio Lab podcast I heard a while back on "Words."  Specifically, the story of a neuroanatomist, who described her experience of having a stroke.  It came on in flashes; a moment which she would describe as internal silence, where the mental chatter would cease and she would be left with being in the present experience - a complete peace, followed by the left hemisphere firing back up and realizing she was having a stroke - she needed help - have to...get help... maybe... and suddenly *Zap* pure peace again.  By the time she was in the hospital, she was unconscious.  It was a battle for many years to get her words back, but she recalls those times of being wordless, chatterless, as being utter peace, to experience the unadulterated experience of sensation. While we, with endless chatter, recognize the sun is shining and might hear the words in our head, "oh, look the sun is shining," she would merely feel the sun hitting her face and experience, from moment to moment, the sun hitting her face... the warmth.... the bliss.  She admitted that given the choice between having her words or experiencing the moment, it would be difficult to decide.  I am so inspired by that story.  While I hope I or you never experience a stroke, I am provoked to wonder whether we might be able to adopt a bit of that peace into our own experience by simply aspiring to a level of conciousness that disallows the gratuitous chatter that pulls us away from experiencing the moments we could be cherishing fully.  I believe the possibility is in us, if only we see our greatness - the boundless, incredible potential to experience the present - the power to choose not to define ourselves by anything exterior, past or future and just be, fully be. 

I have been honored with the responsibility of being a part of training a wonderful family.  I have to leave you all with an inspiring moment I had in our first meeting recently.  I had mentioned I had quit wearing make up a while back because I had realized that I was attached to wearing it because I felt unworthy and unattractive without it.  I no longer wanted to be a slave to it and felt the need to be free.  she said, "Yea, but you're beautiful.  Your complexion is clear and you have no laugh lines..." And there was my epiphany... and very real truth for all of us to recognize... that, we sometimes disguise our self abuse in the complements we think abuot and express to others.  Had I heard the inner dialogue following what she said to me, it would have said, "and I don't have a clear complexion.  I have laugh lines."  She is a lovely, beautiful, strong woman.  But, it doesn't matter how she appears to others.  She sees what she believes to be her weaknesses and her thoughts about herself stop there.  The opportunities we have to rob ourselves of our happiness are endless.  It takes proaction and mindfulness to stop those thoughts and refuse to allow them to become our beliefs.  Afterall, nothing matters but our content. Nothing matters, but our content basking in each moment. Please let me know you are out there.  Especially let me know if you are with me on this journey.  Share your thoughts.  Let's inspire each other to move to the next level and begin experiencing in the present!