De Toga op een Kiertje: marram grass as an indicator of resilience

(marram grass as an indicator of resilience)

How much does a person need to repent? The other day a colleague gave me a small book with the title: Omdenken (flip-thinking) by Berthold Gunster. Being an arch-optimist, the book had a great appeal to me because for me the glass is half full instead of half empty. And that is usually very convenient because for every problem there are at least three solutions, since the problem is not the problem, it is all about the expectations, those are the problem! And as Wayne Dyer says: you yourself can create and adjust your own expectations. It is the facts that you cannot adjust, however, expectations are no facts.

But what to do if things go wrong? What if that positive attitude suddenly proves to be a trap.

In my life, I have always assumed that a person will become as he himself thinks he will. Follow your intuition, do not wait too long, live in the present. We create the things we pay attention to. We add energy.

Do not be against, but FOR something. Focus on what you want instead of on all the things you do not want.

IF WE DON’T GET LOST, WE’LL NEVER FIND A NEW ROUTE ~ Joan Littlewood

I have always lived my life in such a way that I am focussed on what I wish to achieve. In the past years I have learned to become at peace with myself and grateful. After my accident I was in a wheelchair and I saw the world from the bottom upwards. After a long  period of convalescence I returned to the office and found myself surrounded by chaos at my work where things had got somewhat unbalanced due to my absence. I started with  sorting things out and to rehabilitate matters there as well. Giving attention makes things flourish. Subsequently, a lot of things happened at home, and I again got out off balance. Rehabilitation once again. Had my attitude been too positive? Had my positivism caused me to see only sunshine?

A year later, I have got my life back in order again and then I stumble over a doorstep. Reliving. Does a body have emotions? Can bones cry? Is it necessary to slow down if you yourself go faster than the speed of light?

Knowing how to slow down is an art as well

It is your task to go along with the flow of the universe, it is your catalogue, choose whatever you want and put it on. There is enough for everybody. We all have our own route. Your choice. Your responsibility. The question is not whether you colour outside or within the lines, but that you make your own drawing.

My positive attitude is my driving force. It gives me strength and a thousand opportunities. It means that I can live my life three times. But sometimes it is also a pitfall. Now I know as much. And yet, the other day I fell once again. A threshold made me stumble. If I say aloud that the feeling I feel reminds me of the accident, I am almost there .. but the penny does not drop. I do say the words but it does not get into my head. The brains ignore the body. Stupid, because the body does not lie. The breach is visible in a photograph, I am broken once again. Then I do understand. See.

In the eyes of Tao, if no action is needed based on the laws of nature, doing anything is overdoing. The action however insignificant can do you more harm than good.

The time was not right yet. In Taoism it is called Wu-Wei: waiting, observing how things in nature take their course. Do not disturb the order. In the Western world we tend to pull the grass if we want it to grow faster. Doing nothing may also be very effective. Leave it. I must wait and sit at home on the coach like a Buddha. My body gives a stop sign. Now I know that I should listen to my body. It is not either/or but a conscious and. That is what’s meant.

Marram grass in the Dutch island Ameland is very flexible and resilient. If you are able to flip think, life will become lighter and more spacious. It gives you resilience to get up again and to keep on believing in yourself.

GOLIATH

When the people of Israel came face to face with the giant Goliath for the first time, their first reaction was:

He is so big, we will never be able to defeat him.

But David though: He is so big, I cannot miss him. He then got up.

He defeated the giant because he believed he could.