Good Morning, Cancer Survivors. I have an assignment for you. Every day for at least a week, look for something that SURPRISES you. Surprises are all around us if we have eyes to see. I'm sure you have been told to live each day--to be in the NOW moment, but looking for surprises will take you to another level. Learning to look closely will intensify your awareness of just being alive. Joan Chittister says," When we do not cultivate a sense of surprise we give in to the emotional dysfunction that suffocates the breath of life in us."
Surprises come in many forms. In one class I taught the changing weather of that week was something we were all aware of--on Sunday it snowed and on Thursday the temperature was 80. In between there was rain and fog. All of us noted this and were surprised but one student saw a beautiful rainbow that the rest of us had missed.
Sometimes our surprise comes from human behavior. One student felt too sick to keep her doctor appointment and that evening the doctor came to her house to check on her condition. A house call in this location is indeed a surprise.
Many surprises come from Nature. I usually teach this class during Lent which is Springtime here in Virginia. It seems that every day Nature has a new surprise--a flower appears in an unexpected place--a new bird is spotted.
Some students have found surprises in the newspaper or on TV. Things out of their usual place or order create surprises. One student saw a dead kangaroo by the roadside. In Virginia?
These surprises shock us into an awareness of the mystery that surrounds us and takes us, at least momentarily from the cocoon of self-absorption that cancer can bring.
Be sure to write down these surprises in your journal. Over a period of time patterns will appear that will give you insight into yourself.
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I would love to hear what surprises you discover.
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