I was visiting with friends on a front porch in one of the last warm days of fall, and up popped Sonic Kitty onto the bench near my friend. I said "LOOK! He looks posed right by the pumpkin" so I rushed to get a picture. This cat zooms around, rarely sits still so I felt it was a great moment. The conversation that followed was opposite: "Oh no! We're all going to have bad luck from now on".
Personally, I don't feel there is luck; bad or good. Certainly there are circumstances that are not the greatest that come up unexpectedly. Take my trip to the dentist yesterday, for example. If you did not know it, root canals can actually need revisiting after a long period of time. What should have been just around a half hour of service turned out to be two hours of my kindly dentist whacking on the crown with what feels like a mouth-sized sledge hammer.
This is obviously my rendition of what happens from the receiving end. They dare not hand you a mirror or you would probably freak out at the barbaric look of this dental tool, but try as she might, my wonderful dentist could not get that crown off.
After awhile, she and the techician talked over my head like I was not present and to a certain degree, I wasn't. Kind Lady Dentist is ever so good to put me in happy land with nitrous oxide because I stress really easily with mouth pain. After 15 years, she knows me and just takes care of things so I can have a comfortable journey. When she can.
At one point, the pounding dislodged the filling on the tooth next door to the crowned tooth. GADS! She had to stop and refill that one, take a break and then try another few whacks. It never did come off so next stop is an oral surgeon who will have to go in laterally to get to the canals. I know for a certainty, I want to know nothing about that process while it is being accomplished. He does provide IV sedation and that is the boat I want to get into.
The dentist herself was saying things like "my bad karma"; hers inflicting itself onto me, but, I say, things don't always work the way they could.
It's like Sonic Kitty up there. I think it was a great thing to have captured the real black cat by a fake pumpkin, where most times, the pumpkin would have been real but not the cat. His golden eyes just happened to be open too. What a bonus moment!
If you have ever been around a person who does not look at life as their glass being half full, their negativity is nearly impossible to be around. We all have occasional moments or even periods in life where we struggle because it is true, bad things happen to good people and we have to work our way through them.
Job is the perfect example. The devil challenged God that Job would curse God in a heartbeat and there was a lot of crud that Job went through. Because of his own fear, he allowed the crack of bad to turn into the Grand Canyon and the devil had a real party in Job's life. This attribution of "God smote" is actually what is called an idiom of permission. "Google" it; lots of good reading out there on this topic. Sip on it like you would hot cider, think on it and let that permeate your senses.
People of the world who would like to be a Christian have this horrible dichotomy that God brings evil, death and destruction so why would they want to worship a God like that? Better off on your own path, than that. But what if it were not true that God is the 'smiter and bringer of hemorrhoids and the scourge'?
Understanding that idiom was a life-changer for me. It all began to make sense. The bad is allowed to happen and the havoc in the world is also not from God. We curse the wrong one. Does it mean we are evil or "unfaithful" if bad things happen? Nay. Some things occur because of our own doing but also, because the havoc exists in the world in which we live. I believe that we do not control circumstances though we are a part of them. We can control our own actions and thoughts, but not events.
I also believe that we can come through those bad and sometimes, yes, horrible situations, better if we can find and continue to say good and not focus on the bad and horrible.
Though not "luck"; I do believe that more good comes our way by looking for the good than holding on to the negative and bad, which left unchecked, can become anger that grows a root of bitterness deep into our souls. Who needs that?
I see by my the little map of the world that shows the visitors to the site that some good people across the pond have touched down into Blooms in the Garden. Welcome! Whether you stay a season or like a bee bouncing through the blooms, I hope that you can gain good pollen on your boots.
I will be travelling to West Virginia next week on business and then off for a few days to Minnesota, land of ten thousand lakes and some good friends for Thanksgiving.
"That would be an American holiday" an English acquaintance noted to me, once. Yes, but thankful living is any person in any nation, every day. I hope that you can find a lot to be thankful for and if you are celebrating with family, pass the gravy, save me some cranberries!
