Category Archives: Overcome Difficulties

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties

Pains In The Head

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After much tapping and poking and asking Does this hurt? Or THIS! and (oddly) sticking her little fingers in my ears? she said, Well Reverend my best advice is an extraction! Right there in the chair with nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and in no time the troublesome tooth was out and away. That was yesterday. Today? Less pain.

Over the past couple of weeks or so I’ve fallen under the spell of wandering jaw, tooth and sinus pains. With dentists off duty for the holidays I’ve just had to grin and bear with it. But with it came diminished brain function which, because of diminished brain function, I didn’t fully realize! The truth of it is gradually dawning on me as I rise out of the fog of pain.

Thinking is still quite a struggle. Thinking what to say now. Goodness! How very much we rely on our ability to sequence thoughts. Our ability to think straight. Interesting though, to see or know, that the reflective capacity remains intact in the midst of, for me, relatively mild difficult mind states.

Somebody asked me recently why it is that some people take up a reflective/spiritual practice, and some do not. If I had had my wits about me I’d have said something like, It’s the people who know they hurt badly enough, and believe they can do something about it, who take up a reflective practice. But I stumbled and rambled on about how I find it difficult to distinguish between those who do and those who do not have a practice. Even in extremity the capacity to reflect and act remains, to a greater or lesser amount, in tact. I feel that capacity is common to all.

Thanks to the people sitting in Hebden Bridge who sat through my somewhat disjointed speaking the other evening.

This post is for those who are in real extremity. Especially mental/emotional extremity. And for those wonderful individuals who help them. Real treasures.

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Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

Squawk This Christmas

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The Upper Eden Valley

Looking up, and who wouldn’t considering their call, a pair of Scarlet Macaw. Beak to beak, long tail feathers flying, wobbling atop a TV aerial. Well above the dripping icicles. So, the thaw has come. A welcome relief after two weeks of harsh weather. The Macaw said it all. Bringers of joy, uplifting stressed spirits. Noisy, funny and tropical exotic! Not your typical winged Brit. Not at any time of the year. They said so much. Spoke of much more.

This is the time of year when one would wish for cheer. For, perhaps, the thaw to set in where there is need of that. Hearts. Families. Extended families. Families of interest and of shared heart. Communities spread distant or neighbours in a row. And, thinking as wide and deep as can be. A call for a general thaw. A world thaw. However for now, here, to see the pavements again is a start.

There has been talk of family. Difficulties. So much suffering. And the incredible human ability to walk through. Scarred, yes. And not without huge persistent feelings of loss, rejection. Real loss. Real rejection. Incredible then, that general persistent life-time thaw is carried within all of that. We talk about people turning their life around. People can and people do. Safer to stay peeping from behind the curtains? Or so it might seem. However, sooner or later one has to go out and face the weather. Like the Macaws we tend to gather together in groups. The harsh conditions has people talking on the streets. Smiling shyly at the kindness of strangers. Weather unites like nothing else. Given half a chance and buckets of intention, in good directions, thaw happens.

Watching the Macaw. The bright scarlet Macaw. Now! What on earth are they doing? Pecking and preening. They’re rearranging each others feathers! Bless ’em. Birdie community building? All the while they squawk. Loud, low-pitched, throaty squawks. Apparently these sounds and their squeaks and screams are designed to carry for miles. They are calling to their groups.

‘Tis the time to squawk! While looking up.

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Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

Mobility Compromised – On Allowing The Sight To Enter In

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Garden Buddha – pointing to where we sit, benefiting self and other.

Viewed from my window. A lorry loaded with huge plastic pipes went up the road. Then later, down the road only to be followed by it coming back up the road. Lost! Yes probably lost and the roads are in no state to be in any doubt as to where one is going. People on foot. Booted and gloved with shopping bag or backpack. Many preferring to walk in the road rather than the uncleared pavements. All walking purposefully. Fetching and carrying or escorting children for play in the snow. The going underfoot is somewhat perilous for the young and fit, for those who are less young and less fit life is a struggle right now.

Last afternoon I fell into conversation with an older chap as we slush-ed our way along an uncleared side road. Him in his wellies, me in hiking boots. He had a walking pole. He recounted that he had already fallen and had gone back to fetch the pole to steady himself. Poles are in effect an extra limb to help with balance especially on ice and inclines. We parted with a wave. I mused to myself that these extreme conditions do bring people together. I found myself entering into more conversation as I went about my business. Getting in supplies while there was a break in the snow falling.

Being sure of foot goes largely unquestioned and thus unappreciated. It is after all more or less continuously. The occasional trip or slip gets ones attention, to pay more attention to the going under foot, which is good. Then there are the little slips which have big consequences. A broken limb! A sprained ankle! Mobility then becomes a BIG ISSUE. Then imagine a young man, on patrol, in the army, stepping on a trip wire. The story of one such chap, now a triple amputee, has been told on a BBC3 Documentary titled My Boyfriend the War Hero. It can be downloaded or watched on line for the next 13 days on BBC iPlayer. The story centers around the relationship between the chap and his sixteen year old fiance who becomes his full time carer. People who have amputations tend not to lament their loss, they are focused on mobility and all the huge challenges presented. They have had time to make their decision and come to terms with it. However for our soldier in the documentary there was no time, just a bright white flash as he took the hit.

Mobility compromised is a gross understatement and not the whole picture by any means. This post is for all those who take the hit like this soldier, or in the other multitudinous ways people are hit in life. Largely such extremity is hidden to all save those who care for them. One can only imagine the chronic isolation and loneliness for all who suffer a hit, as well as the stresses and strains encountered by those around them. A thought.

Unlike our little bitty fall of snow, fetching strangers to converse in a picture postcard world, the raw reality of amputation is not a pretty sight. However I believe it is important to allow the sight and reality to enter in. For the benefit of others as well as oneself.

Thank you for the photograph good friend. The Buddha has a good place in this post, and a good place in your garden too.

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Out and About, Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

Discomfort Zone

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Filmed in 1955 Snowdrift at Bleath Gill follows the actions of railway workers who are sent to rescue a snowbound train in the north Pennines.

For those of you who are not caught up in the drama of the unseasonal snow and frigid temperatures we are enjoying in Britain, the news is…we are snowbound! Much of the UK is white, again. Schools are closed, two in the town where I am staying. This morning I swept off the car I am borrowing intending to go shopping, then watching the snow blizzarding across the road I went indoors. And stayed there.

This film seems like a good one to watch given the current weather. Perhaps a reminder to remember those who are out there tonight helping to keep the roads and rails clear for travel. Even so two major crossings of the Pennines are closed this evening. One, the A66, crosses close to where the film was shot.

Meanwhile in Antarctica….a band of climbers are gathering to make the summit of Mt. Vinson. This climb, this being the first of seven climbs, is to raise Alzheimer’s awareness and $1M for research.

And for the intrepid armchair traveler, this.

Extreme conditions, and I am not just talking about the weather, has the effect of helping us to rally round. To rise above and do, and think and achieve great things. Like Alan Arnette and his fund-raising efforts for Alzheimer awareness and research. Like people simply getting out and shoveling snow, when they could be indoors by the fire. Like…well at one time or another most encounter extreme life conditions. And it seems to me it is not the details so much, the drama if you will, it is the heart/mind of those caught up. Our deep ability, built in, as human animals to face adversity, and win through.

However facing adversity isn’t necessary in order to know this. Simply going indoors is an option.

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Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties

Moments That Don’t Go Away

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Sudden, violent death leaves no room for reflection. I don’t even remember the dog’s color. (The girl, however, was blonde. That I know.) I recall the sensations and sounds of that day, but I feel nothing for the dog other than a vague undercurrent of guilt and inevitability.
From a post Death Bound on The World as Best As I Remember It – blog.

Thanks to Julius for the link to this post.

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