It was a bit of windy rainy day to start…but no matter…all was right in my world that morning.   I left the house as usual (after taking out the trash and recycling and doing a few other odds and ends) for my Wednesday morning jaunt…off to see my chiropractor.

 

Getting back to the house at my usual lunchtime I unloaded my things from the car and sauntered into the kitchen with my ice-pack and newly purchased supplements. I walked by the kitchen window and found myself doing a bit of a double take. OMG…no way, I thought to myself.

 

A huge part of a tree had fallen months ago in our backyard, but now I realized that this was not the tree that I was looking at.  This was an even bigger tree…and this time ALL of it came down. All 4000+ lbs of it had come down very close to our house and to our deck. But somehow, someway, crazily…it missed both.  The only thing it took with it was part of our fence, a fence which was falling down already.

 

So, I had two paths in front of me. I could be upset about having to deal with a massive tree blocking access to part of the house, having a fallen tree from a neighbor’s yard, having to deal with this neighbor, and of course, any possible costs for clean up. Basically, just looking at the negative.

 

Or, the second path (as I see it) would be to embrace the good. The tree fell when nobody was in the yard. The massive trunk somehow laid a zig-zag path across the lawn. It missed the hammock, the deck, and our house…only taking down an already broken fence. And on top of all of that amazing good fortune, we now have at least a cord of firewood to burn this winter.

 

Bad things happen to each and every one of us or to the ones that we love. It’s OK to deal with these as bad and to lament in whatever hardship they bring. However, too often we let a minor inconvenience stand in as a horrible event. Instead of embracing the luck that it is only a minor inconvenience.

 

After seeing the rotted roots of this massive tree…it was only a matter of time before it came crashing down. It would not have needed heavy winds or a big storm to bring it down. This tree came down on a normal day with just a small amount of wind. Anyone could have been in the yard. The tree could have twisted slightly one way and severely damaged our house.

 

If we can learn to embrace the luck of an inconvenient event that could have been a catastrophic one, we may find that we have more resilience when we do truly face adversity.

 

 

Joy & Love,

Goddess Mandy 🙂 XO