Some Meandering thoughts

I can handle the big stuff...strokes, heart surgery, tough clients, ice storms, and skunks that fight under our porch and then spray the basement. Handled, all with aplomb. It seems to be the little things that throw me under the bus. Not only are they little, but they are first world problems. My friend Mea uses this term to help Americans differentiate between a third world problem...no potable water, no access to medical care, etc and the first world problems we can get mired down in. I had dinner with a friend last week-end who has spent quite a bit of time in Haiti during the last months. Her perspective has been broadened.

I need to travel out of my small New England town and see how the rest of the world is getting on. I need some perspective broadening. I have the right to worry that the 4 star restaurant I just had dinner at was too small for intimate conversation or that our medical reimbursement fund is not calibrated correctly but I need to balance those worries with what is happening in the rest of the world. I have become too comfortable with my comfort.

I have learned the most in my life when I have become uncomfortable. I left Texas when I was 22 and did not know a soul in this part of the world. I have spent some time wondering what pulled me so far away from home but I learned to trust that unconscious desire to leap. Letting go of the trapeze before you catch the next one is a time of disequilibrium and discomfort. What a glorious space.

So, I'm settled, healthy and comfortable at this moment and I'm enjoying that, too. Still, when I start worrying too much about my first world problems, I know it is time for the next leap.