Rip the Lid Off!

Do you remember the cans that have the cow’s “voice” inside them?  Maybe you played with one when you were small or have heard of them.  When I was a wee gal, I thought that toy was kind of a marvel.  What I really wanted to do though was somehow take the lid off of the toy so that I could pull out what I had convinced myself was a real, live cow living in the can!  Let me share with you that there is something way better to “rip the lid off” of & that is our very own lives!

Are we “containing” ourselves in different ways?  We answer that question for ourselves when we take the time on our own in silence.  What would happen if we did go ahead & rip the lid off of our own lives?  My heart’s answer is that it would change the world.  If we are not fully letting our true selves out of “containers”, why is that?  Are some folks fearful of not being accepted?  Are others “programmed” to doing things the same old way?  Do we have the preverbal “stiff upper lip?”  Or is it something else? 

To say that I am an enthusiastic person would be an understatement yet even I have had times that have been “contained” times throughout life.  One of those times that I remember is that first year with type 1 diabetes.  Man, I felt like I had gone into a mini hibernation in some ways for that year.  The days were so structured around eating at the same times, taking the insulin needles at the same times, exercising at the same times & figuring out how to integrate this diagnosis into our family life.  If you have type 1 diabetes too, then you may share the struggles of trying to figure out how to work out how diabetes will become a part of your life & not your life being all about diabetes.  We are after all stronger & more than diabetes or other 365 challenges.  The initial diagnosis though had me behaving a bit like the Cat in the Hat trying to balance my parallel world of the fish in the pot, umbrella & all that Seuss-like stuff that first year.  It did not take long to see what did not work.  In life sometimes, it is finding what does work that can take time, several failures, patience, steadfastness, and determination.  It was a pretty tiring year trying to work that stuff out & my enthusiasm waned temporarily.  Thankfully, I knew with all my heart that the loss of enthusiasm was temporary & would  be back.  And do you know what; of course it came back, a million fold!  That is the power of so many blessings working together.  If this can happen for me, it can happen for you too. 

After that first year with type 1, something changed.   It did not happen without enormous effort which is often the case.  What happened is that I received my insulin pump.  Within 2 weeks, I had educated myself on how to work with that life saving device.  It was an intense 2 weeks & worth all the effort.  After that, the reward of freedom appeared.  The freedom was in the form of the pump doing the “heavy lifting” of “operating” my pancreas.  We are still very much the brains & math behind our insulin pumps yet the miracle of having a pump in my life & what it has meant to my family is indescribable.  There was no more eating, exercising, and giving insulin day in day out at the same times & then working every single minute at trying to hit a moving target like in that first year.  Even 4 years of “pumping” later, I almost pinch myself to be so blessed to live in an age where these devices are here for us.  For me, the insulin pump is a love story of sorts.  Sure it has its moments of inconvenience & the odd hiccup, yet so does life for anyone diabetes or no diabetes.  I choose gratitude to have this pump every single day.  For the past 4 years, I could not help but rip the lid back off my life again…only more than ever before.

You may have found that a struggle in your life has provided you with a fork in the road or 2 pathways to choose from.  The struggle can lead one to choose to pull back from life or put the lid on our lives.  Or the struggle can lead one to choose to rip the lid off our lives with greater enthusiasm than a lot of folks can believe.  The struggle then receives meaning from that moment on.  It can receive the meaning in that we can choose to help others who either have the same struggle or have another struggle because we have an understanding of what they are going through.  We may use our struggle in another positive way.  When we make this choice, it is absolutely incredible.  We get to live & love boldly & louder & reach out with compassion & understanding.  We get to not contain ourselves!  Sure, you & I may get the odd raised eyebrow here & there yet that does not need to bother us if we make that choice.  How great does it feel to be fully, boldly, gently, beautifully ourselves & share with others. 

Once we rip the lid off the container of our lives, I believe that we may always want to live that way.  We can have temporary setbacks yet, we have that point of reference of how it feels to embrace being fully alive.  It would be painful to me to consider putting the lid back on my life I will share.  I will not even consider doing that.  Okay Saundie, how about when others try to put the lid on your life for you?  If we are still drawing strength after a struggle, we just may need a battle buddy to help us.  If we have a strong foundation, then we will remind ourselves that we have choice over what we decide is advice that is life-giving to us & what is not. 

To share with you, when we were expecting our first born son, we had a big scare when I was 6 months expectant.  I began to go into pre-mature labour.  To this day, I remember the doctors & specialists coming into the hospital room & telling me what the odds were heavily against our child living & if he did live we were told that  he would be blind, have respiratory challenges, and many other challenges.  This may sound very strange yet once the myriad of doctors left the room & I was by myself in the quiet of the room, an indescribable peace came over me like never before.  And I knew with all my being that not only was the baby not going to have any of these things happen to him, I knew that he was not going to be born early either.  It was not denial; it was something incredibly beyond what most people would think of as faith.  It was huge & not for one minute did I even consider any other option than this peaceful knowledge that this little boy was going to be just fine.  Also, even though the name had never appeared on my husband & my list of potential baby names, the name “Matthew” kept repeating through my mind for hours & hours.  Long story cut short, Matthew was not born prematurely at all & in fact was 10 days late!  I am not for a minute trying to suggest that statistically the doctors were not correct.  They were & are extremely competent & I respect them profoundly.  For me though there was a “voice” beyond what I was hearing in the hospital room…and yes, you bet that I believe in miracles.  Each & every one of us is an original miracle & so why would we want to live with the lid on our lives? 

If we remember each & every day that just the fact that we are here & that we woke up to a new day makes us & the day a miracle, then we may consider ripping the lid off our lives with urgency & hit it out of the park enthusiasm.

My heart’s hope for you is that if you have not ripped the lid off of your life already that today is the day that you go ahead & do just that.

Smiles, Saundie :)

Go ahead & have a week of ripping the lid off of your life & keep it that way & next Monday's sharing is, "And Along the Way to Our Destination."  :)