This one’s for all the times’ when something goes REALLY wrong…
in 2020 while I was in India I spent a week working with a spiritual teacher who Changed. My. Life.
For real!!!
Each morning we’d wake up at sunrise and study on the banks of the river Ganga (I know, that ACTUALLY HAPPENED in real life – what!?!! I felt like I was living in a film hahah!)
One morning, with only 2 days left before my flight home, together with a group of people we woke up while it was still dark, headed to the river, and hopped on a rickety boat to watch the sunrise.
It was AMAZING!
As the sun started to peep over the water, my teacher looked at me and said, “You think this is amazing? Just wait until you learn what I have planned to teach you this afternoon. It will be our most important topic yet. I just know you’re never going to forget this day.”
As the boat kept rocking on the water I start to feel my stomach…in my mouth!
The more I thought about it, the more I thought I was going to puke all over everyone on that boat!
I’m quiet. Very quiet.
Then the boat docks on the shore, and 30 minutes later I’m in a hostel toilet, covered in sweat with my head spinning like a bicycle wheel, vomiting my heart out.
(me..on the boat 30 minutes before puking🙈)
He was right. I will never forget that day, but not for the reason he first intended.
I was determined that this day would go the way I wanted it to. I was flying back home in 2 days and thought there wouldn’t be enough time to learn everything if I was sick today.
After 3 hours of trying to stand up without immediately having to run back to the bathroom and stick my head in the toilet, I gave up, and spent the rest of the day lying on a sofa alternating between trying to nap and trying to eat mouthfuls of cold porridge.
And so I missed that very important lesson my teacher had planned for that day.
But I learnt a different very important lesson instead.
I learn that you can’t always control the way things turn out, even when you realllllly really want to, and even when it feels really, really important.
And in the end, I did learn everything I was supposed to. Why? Because my teacher decided to accompany me on the 14-hour road journey to the airport, and on the night before my flight, we stayed up all night studying before going straight to the airport where I caught my 9am flight back home!
And so, I learnt that if something doesn’t go the way you want it to, there is always another way to make it happen.
You can think of it like this: How do you get to the number 9?
Well, 5+4 =9, and so does 2+7. 9-0 also makes 9, just like 230-221.
In other words, there are a million different ways to get to the number 9. And there are a million different ways to get what you need if something doesn’t go your way at first.
So when was the last time you didn’t get what you wanted the first time around, but it turned out good in the end?
Have great week, and see you soon!
Mabel