The Human Experience
Perspective and Acceptance Within Challenge
January 2007

Recently I had a super busy week.  Organized and ready to meet it, I prepped for my maxed schedule.  That Tuesday, I was offsite and while carrying presentation supplies I slipped on a mass of ice and slammed to the ground.  Incredible pain cycled through my body, evoking moans that rose from an unknown part of me.  When I tried to stand up and walk, I slid back down to the ground, having what I’ll call a “sensory whiteout,” unable to see or hear.  Gradually, I regained my senses, and could stand painfully.  This was not in my day’s plan!

Nor was my error later in the day.  Twice a month I lead 50-minute mentor calls.  Dial the conference line, enter an access code, lead the call.  Oh human error!  I forgot to write down the asterisk sign (*), preceding the access code and couldn’t get on the call!  As I was offsite without my computer or internet I had to figure something out.  Eventually after a lot of stress, phone calls and sorting, I joined the call with 10 minutes left.  And now the school has created a new policy for mentors who miss calls.  Oh boy.

That was a humbling day.

The Urge to Judge

Disappointment, anger, sadness and a feeling of failure to meet my responsibility all flooded in.  My urge to judge myself was strong—different shoes, should be more careful on the ice, I could have prevented it, I should have printed the code instead of hand-writing it….  Should, could, would.

Note to self: I’m human.

Do you expect perfection from yourself, the inner critic raving when you make an oversight?  Do you often feel you should have done a better job?  Or more so, are you obsessive about your life and work that you don’t allow space for being human and making mistakes in the first place?  Thinking, “Avoid errors at all costs!”

Human experience is an unmistakable opportunity for stillness, reflection, contemplation and perspective and is the fuel for our growth, learning and self-acceptance.  Embrace that which is difficult and it will soften.

Gaining Perspective

A myriad of emotions “worked me,” laced with embarrassment about an asterisk sign and feeling intermittent physical reminders of my sacral snafu.

And then a single conversation shifted everything.  I have a beloved friend who has been fighting for her life this year with breast cancer.  She’s experienced pain on levels I hope to never know, and lost hair, flesh, energy, time.  And yet she speaks about the experience, the disease, as “fascinating,” pouring forth a sense of tremendous gratitude for her body’s ability to heal.  She shared how close it brought her family and how since there’s no good time in a busy schedule for vacation, any time is a good time.

And suddenly I realized: I fell; it was painful.  Big deal.  I will heal.
I messed up a phone call.  So what?  I made a mistake.

How can we reach for the bigger picture when we’re in the midst of “woe-is-me?”  How can we accept what we’re given (or further what we’ve created)--the mistakes and discomfort, rather than curse ourselves or circumstances?  In everything there is a gift.  Mine was perhaps to slow down, to lighten my schedule so as not to overlook the small things in life (like an asterisk sign or a patch of ice or something more important).  As we know the difference lies in the little things.

Honor your human experience.  Embrace what comes.  Do your very best to gain perspective and know that with every experience, you have both the ability to choose the higher learning and to choose differently next time.

close window