When we dig deep and work, the garden of life delivers wisdom. But it is very rarely pretty.
I had a conversation with someone yesterday at the beach I see at different yoga classes, and he is a cool Cat. I don’t know John very well, but his energy seemed a little bit low compared to what I was used to from previous encounters. I gently prodded about their current state of affairs and he quickly confessed to the fact that they were coping with the loss of a friend who had passed away recently.
This person I was talking to actually went so far as to get a puppy as a sort of knee-jerk reaction to filling the hole in their heart with a canine.
How the whole conversation started was me inquiring about their new puppy, and from there we got into the impetus of how the puppy came into the mix.
They directly asked me because, even though we don’t hang out other than seeing each other at different classes and events, John knew that I’m comfortable talking about uncomfortable stuff.
I let them know that them that the fact that they were talking about the process and acknowledging some of the ways they were handling the current state of loss was really incredible. I told John he should take a moment to congratulate himself and to be proud of handling death in a very honest and straightforward way versus trying to hide from it or floating down that river in Egypt known as “DeNial”
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The manure metaphor from my childhood is what I keep coming back to, and that’s the story of how every spring my Father would bring in a trailer of hot fresh manure from one of the farms just outside of Ann Arbor. It would always be steaming when it would show up and my brother Sean and I were tasked with spreading it on our large garden plot in the rear part of our yard.
And while we were doing it, believe me, it smelled, felt and looked like shit. I’m sure if I tasted it it would’ve tasted like shit too ha ha.
Just like suffering does in real-time.
However, just a month later, all sorts of things would start to bloom, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that we literally had the most fruitful and biggest garden of anyone on our street every summer.
The wisest and happiest people you see are often times the people that have gone through the greatest amount of suffering in pain, processed it and come out on the other side with wisdom.
The Folks that have spent the most time in “the Garden working”, if you catch my drift.
That wisdom and perspective on life can only happen when you dig deep and really strive to find answers in yourself and through the help of something bigger than you, whether that is nature, the universe, God, or whatever you would like to call the force of all light love, energy, and life.
Suffering is the fuel that powers, the exploration and realization of all of the wisdom and answers that are already available to you at this very moment.
Hayden Springer suffered the most devastating and traumatic form of human loss possible on the scale as it is ranked and that is the loss of your own young child.
Less than a year ago, Hayden and his Wife lost his daughter Sage at the age of three, and until this weekend in the Golf world, he was known primarily for this tragedy.
Yet his rebound and bounce back is already the thing of legend, as he is guided by a Sage.
https://www.pgatour.com/video/features/6352147460112/hayden-springer-and-wife-emma-reflect-on-loss-of-daughter
You see Hayden went out and shot a 59 as his score during an official round of golf had a PGA Tour event which out of the tens of thousands of times golfers have played round of golf on the PGA Tour has only occurred about a dozen times.
It is a unicorn event, and the fact that someone who experienced such immense tragedy is one of the rare humans to pull it off, which makes it all the more incredible.
The Sage is the Wise teacher, and in this case it’s obvious that his daughter Sage has gone on teaching through the processing of trauma and grief in Hayden’s life as his perspective is truly wonderful.
There is no victim mentality here, which is why he was able to bounce back so strongly as he is processing his trauma in a healthy way, or working the manure into the soil to bear fruits, vegetables, and nourishment for his family today.
As we will hear in our Sherpa series when we get to week five and meet Natalie Baird-King that this type of processing of trauma can only happen when you get comfortable, returning to the generous present moment of now.
For me personally, when I was drinking heavily for those dozen years or so I was doing everything I could to avoid being present in stillness and silence because I knew the message there would be telling me to put down the bottle and to pick up some meditation beads and start working on processing my own life’s trauma and grief and working through how I could create a healthy and sustainable life for myself and my family in the process.
Everything begins with one breath, and then one small step and when you have people willing to help like myself and my whole crew, we are the teacher arriving for the students that are ready.
And when the student is ready, the teacher always arrives.
I’m super proud of Hayden and happy for him and he provides a great example that Humans are incredibly resilient and much like the forest floor after a massive wildfire, green sprouts emerge quickly through a combination of deep breathes, patience, and kindness.
What we are teaching through our Coaching(https://grateful4.org/6-weeks-program/) are Wellness Skills you keep FOREVER that will help you in EVERY aspect of your life; from staying calm on that winning putt, to staying present in the conversations with your wife and children, we are going to help you with coming back to where your own life is happening.
NOW!
And Today, why not get out there and make some peoples day and share the kindness and loving your heart simply because you can.
I bet Sage would love that.
And so will you with your Attitude of Gratitude!
EVERY DAY:
Love
and
Gratitude
https://grateful4.org/6-weeks-program/
https://www.instagram.com/GratiDude_abides
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com/941.894.8030 Text me your celly-cell so I can build my database please…..
Thank you sincerely.
The G.I.F.T. Today
Grateful: for the consistent calm in my life that comes from consistent process and commitment to my own growth
Intention-ebb and flow between project and sherpa prep with chilling and roosting
First-get my class schedule sorted
Things-get with Haile on Flea Market later
REGISTER YOUR SPOT TODAY PLEASE PEEPS AND PLAYERS, GET BETTER…..NOW!
HERE: https://grateful4.org/6-weeks-program/
DOUBLE DONATION MODEL; ONE NOW, THE OTHER WEEK 6 BASED UPON RESULTS
Every day, every way, grateful.
KC
I am here to help, add somebody that needs a “check up from the neck up”
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com
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