Just When Things Were Going So Well…

I’m a firm believer that things happen for a reason. That’s a hard concept to get your mind around when something bad happens just when thins are gong well, like when my son’s friend has graduated from high school and then has a long board accident that causes her to end up in a coma just as she should be getting ready to go off to college. Or when after just one week in New York City with my son, who is attending a summer ballet intensive for six weeks, I slip and fall on the steps outside our apartment and twist my knee making it hard for me to walk — which is what I do most in the city.

Usually I look for symbolism first: Hmmm. Left knee. Knees, or joints, are about willingness to move forward and flexible attitudes. The left side is the feminine side. This makes me wonder if I’m afraid to make the decision to go with a new agent who has agreed to represent me. This means change and the possibility of actually getting to write my books — to use my creative nature — and to succeed.

Or maybe it’s about anger. I was angry when I fell. Maybe I have to learn not to be so angry. And I need to learn to accept my situation, one with which I’m not so happy at the moment. (My son and I were arguing about our living arrangements.) I need to appreciate what we do have — an affordable place to say, good health, each other, the chance for him to dance and learn and grow.

Maybe, if I haven’t done any major damage to my knee, I’ll be forced to go to a gym and work out to strengthen my legs and the rest of my body. I had started to work out last week, but I didn’t really want to continue. I was balking…and I really do need to get in shape. Maybe this will force me to do so, create a great opportunity to do so.

Some might say I just simply got hurt. It’s possible, that something just happened…no rhym or reason. What can I learn from the experience, though? Not to storm off angry. Not to let things get to me. To be more accepting.  To be more appreciative.

No matter what happens to us, even when things are going well and they take a turn for the worse for seemingly no reason, we can always learn something, we can always find an opportunity in diversity. If that is true, than there really is a reason behind every event. Without it, we might not grow and develop and get to the next place we find ourselves. Everything benefits us in some way. The old adage says, “That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” And we’re told that God only never gives us more than we can handle in any one life time. I believe we are given those issues and circumsances and exeriences for some reason.

So, even this must have a reason…must offer me some way to grow.