Monthly Archives: July 2019

Of enormous pills and learning grace

The Fink waxes philosophic.

Thassa big pill.

Consider my daily dose of Carafate. Those nasty things are tall as a quarter, and if you break them in half, they become still-enormous pills, but they now have sharp edges (and I’ve tried the crushing them up in applesauce/juice/yogurt blah, blah, no). What to do?

Just woman up and choke it down whole. And what a lovely idiom/metaphor for what I’ve experienced over the past couple of weeks, heh. Great big old difficult pill to swallow. I’m sure you’ve been there.

Do you find it’s harder to forgive than to ask for forgiveness? I’ll bet you do, at least on some level. Why is that, I wonder. We humans do love our emotional control and deep-seated self-preservation mechanisms, and I suppose that’s part of it. Maybe another part of us — the down-deep part that rarely sees the light of day — derives some weird satisfaction from being the wounded party so we can plot our revenge.

That’s where the wheels fall off for many, I think. And they almost did for me. I got slapped by someone, and I wanted to slap back, twice as hard.

This morning, I was perusing Facebook and saw this meme. It stopped me in my tracks. Once again, I am dragged, kicking and screaming, into learning to be a better person.

Do you hate lessons like this? I do. More “fun” to be an angry victim, when what the other person needs is not your anger (they’re not ashamed of what they’ve done, so your indignation is misplaced), but instead, your grace and forgiveness — even if they neither want nor accept it. Does that mean I “lost?” Probably. But I need to be OK with that. And I will be. Tomorrow.

Have you experienced anything similar? Tell me about it. I will counsel you. That’s why you pay me.

;-)

Lessons

Has this ever been a summer (heck, a year) of learning.

This summer, I learned the value of having lifelong friends, through good times and bad and everything in between. I loved hanging out with RD and his wife Bonnie before I left for Europe, and then enjoyed one of the best Odysseys ever with Suzanne and Kay. In addition to my family, they are treasures! Add to that my friends on social media, and old classmates and extended family that I’ve reconnected with there, and it really is an embarrassment of riches. I’m grateful for it.

I learned so much about the world this summer; about its beautiful spaces and our effects on them. I met wonderful people and established new friendships. What a blast!

But I’d be lying if I said all the learning was pleasant. It hasn’t been.

Without going into too much detail…I found myself regressing to a place I promised myself I’d never go again: the state of being in constant deference to someone else. Waiting to make decisions, waiting around for a return text or phone call, feeling like I was getting the runaround, repeatedly rearranging my life and schedule for the constantly changing plans…ya no bueno. What was I thinking?

Well, I slapped myself back into reality last night, and yanked back control. No one puts Finky in a corner. So, what did I do about it?

Et voilà — an “Odyssette!” I’ve wanted to see this show for over a decade, and last night, I pulled the trigger. Can’t wait. It’ll be a fun opportunity to not only get some Fabs, but also to visit a place the Thriller dearly loved to go. We visited three times, and each trip was a blast, with lots of memories.

As always, thanks to my sister Mavis for caring for Remy while I goof off by myself out West. I love you, sissy!

Hope you’re all doing well. Take care of you.

Hugs.