What is the flat tire in your life?

What is the flat tire in your life?

You get a flat tire. And, of course, it usually happens at the most inconvenient, unexpected, and untimely times – Maybe even dangerous at high speeds on the highway. Not precisely the opportunity you were looking for, yet, it certainly got your attention, didn’t it? Not to mention it became the highest priority to handle.

Ever wonder why it took a flat tire to get your attention?

And, what about other events or experiences in life that took something significant, maybe even extreme, to get your attention?

It reminds me of my desktop computer. My hubby and I knew we needed to replace it, yet, we put it off day after day. We had many opportunities to do something about it. But we didn’t. And, wham, our computer decided for us and permanently crashed.

Was it unexpected? Inconvenient? Untimely? Did I know exactly when it would happen? After all, it did “tell” us again and again – “Help! I’m on my way out!“

Have you ever looked back at the events or life experiences that smacked you upside the head (figuratively or literally) to get your attention? Did it get your attention – Did you get the message? Or, maybe you blew it off with, “that’s just the way it is?”

Life events and experiences, after all, come into our lives to get our attention. Experiences from ‘no biggie’ to ‘holy moly, say what?’ And, of course, we get to decide what’s a biggie or not. They are, after all, our own human experiences, not someone else’s.

However, how many of them keep circling back? You thought you’d dealt with them, put them aside, or ignored them, and yet, there they were again!

I felt that way when diagnosed a second time with breast cancer. Talk about a “biggie!” Now that’s a flat tire that gets your attention!

I thought I’d handled it the first time around. I even made significant changes in my lifestyle, like letting go of toxic people. I learned to love them from afar, but no longer up close and personal. And yet, here we go again!

My hubby experienced his own “biggie” a few months ago. He entered the house from our garage. His arms were loaded down with stuff (in other words, no free hands available) with loose slippers upon his feet. As he entered, his feet slipped out from under him, and down he went –  hitting his head on the doorknob as he fell.

He split his eyebrow and forehead open, and as is true for head wounds, it gushed. At first, as he put his hands to his head, I thought he’d hit his eye. Thankfully he did not. 

The advice nurse was called. Questions asked and answered. Then off to the critical care unit, we went to get him stitched up. And he ended up with black eyes.

Now there’s a giant flat tire for you! Mind you; this was not the first time around for him either. Over the years, he’s often carried far too much stuff at a time, no free hands, and ended up dropping, breaking, or losing what he carried. Like the handles on grocery bags that break and the groceries tumble to the ground.

We certainly experience many flat tires in life, expected and unexpected. Yet, these experiences, from profound to benign, are an open doorway to a deeper meaning and guidance. That is, if we step through that doorway, choose to listen, take heed, and accept the gift of that message or suggestion.

I’m not saying that’s easy. The concept is simple, yet we humans like to complicate things and make things much harder for ourselves. I know that I can find many ingenious ways to avoid the message or think the message is far too simple to be the right one to follow.

We argue our limitations. Tell ourselves and anyone else who will listen that this is just the way things are for us – it’s just the way of life.

Yet, is it? 

Let me clarify what I mean. A lesson I am learning more and more about each day. I’m no expert on this, just a student of life who wishes to share what I have learned.

Here’s what I have come to embrace and recognize. I am a human being here to have human experiences on Earth. Those experiences are not an accident. They do not happen randomly, nor are they a fluke. They are gifts we give to ourselves.

An odd statement, I know. That everything we experience is a gift. 

It boggled my mind, too, when I first heard it. I wanted to argue with that message, yet, it resonated as truth deep in my soul.

Of course, we have a choice as to whether we see ourselves as victims of these circumstances or experiences or accept them as helpful. But, no matter what they are – from disastrous to the mundane, we are meant to experience them.

And, here’s the most helpful aspect – we have been perfectly designed to handle them all. No matter what!

Oh, and to love our human selves. No part of us is a mistake.