Bear It or Bare It?
Hard to believe we're into the seventh month of the year. And what a year it's been!
As I've been hearing from many of you as well, this year has been a doozy for me. Health issue after health issue, carefully crafted plans getting demolished, a lot of personal de/re-construction, all on top of family/ancestral wounds in need of healing.
Through it all, there's one story from earlier in the year that sticks with me.
I'd been dealing with kidney stone issues for a couple of months. Lots of questions, uncertainty and discomfort. I was on the phone again with the advice nurse -- asking about medication, wondering if I should go in, wanting any kind of reassurance that there was rhyme or reason to what I was going through.
After I explained my plight, the woman on the phone plainly stated: "Honey, with a kidney stone, you just have to bear it."
I was a little stunned.
She wasn't being unkind, she was just being honest. I could make myself as comfortable as possible, I could care for myself in the ways I was able, I could get the support I needed... and at the end of the day, I still had to go through it.
You know these situations. The ones no one else can do for you. The ones that can't be fixed. Divorce, death of a loved one, physical and emotional recovery, a kidney stone.
Bearing something also has qualities of being bare, as in unconcealed, undisguised, revealed, unadorned. Like we've been peeled back.
When life asks us to withstand pain, uncertainty or difficulty, to endure a situation with tolerance and patience, we can feel stripped, naked, bare.
Which then requires more bearing because that's also uncomfortable!
The alternative is to button up, brace and attempt to manage every detail. While tempting, we all have stories about how that ends. Makes me think of the phrase, "Let go or be dragged."
So here I am, feeling a little more bare to life. Exposed, divulged. And with that, wonderfully more sensitive (which is such a lovely, alive quality) and aware.
I'm excited to be posting a few new offerings for fall. Check out my workshops page.
What's happening in your world? Are you bearing or baring or....? Would love to hear.
Wishing you a lovely week,
Michelle
Michelle Marlahan
Where Self Care becomes Soul Care
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