Have Mercy

September 5. 2014

This little guy is on top of the world, taking the hawk's eye view of things. Or toad's eye.

My perspective is somewhat larger but in the scheme of things, not by much. I'm thinking about how we walk around holding tight to our view of things and how we fit into the world, when if you took a step right or left, forward or back, change happens. It'll change something. Most of us don't do that until something jars us, something wonderful or not so wonderful wakes us up.

I bumped into an acquaintance at the local Panera this morning. I had a meeting. She was on the fly to a Weight Watcher's meeting after having just weighed in earlier. This is how the conversation went:

Hi
Hi
How are you?
I just went to a Weight Watcher's meeting. I hate myself.
Don't say that.
I haven't weighed this much ever. I think I need a bagel. I hate myself.
Whoa! You hate yourself?

This lovely person was swirling in this Brutal Vision of herself. Warped? But it was a mirror moment because, like many humans, I have a brutal-meister who beats me up, down. If I'm off center, tired, uncertain, __________, if my perspective needs tweaking but I haven't taken the steps...

forward
back
right 
left
do the hokey-fucking pokey, but for God's sake turn yourself around!

it's a whipping post when the nasty voice kicks in.

We need each other...

To flip the switch, spin us around, tell a different story, help us see the world and ourselves from a different vantage point.  My bagel-hungry friend was beating the shit out of herself for a number on the scale.

If it's not the scale, it's our age, or income, or zipcode. Something.

I helped a little. She bought yogurt instead of the bagel. She said she was happy she ran into me. She said it was like talking somebody out of going into the liquor store. It's all the same stuff, people. But here's the thing: I was happy to run into her too. My voice(s) were rolling this morning.

have mercy on yourself I told her.

We hugged and said our goodbyes. She left with a yogurt. I left lifted by my own message.

It's a simple one, This Being Alivers. It just takes doing, again and again.

Do the hokey pokey, turn yourself around.
Find a new way to look at yourself, an issue, a worry.
Look someone else in the eye and say, have mercy on yourself.

then take some for yourself too, amen.

xo b