What one calls Destruction, Another Calls Life

Found beside Kenilworth Stairs

I saw a snail today inching along a tree branch heading for the leaf that was its day’s food. A few weeks earlier I had found snail shells in my garden. The internet announced in no uncertain terms that all snails should immediately be killed. Their sole purpose in life was to destroy your beautiful garden plants by eating the leaves. Today in a different setting I saw the actual snail and realized that it too was just trying to survive.

This got me wondering about my reaction to loss. As it happens I have experienced a great deal of loss in the last eight years. Despite the fact that every loss eventually led to positive outcomes, each time I am confronted by loss, it is the end of the world. My mind goes into overdrive convincing me that horribly disastrous things are about to happen. All the positive messages in the world are unable to stem the flow of despairing cries to anyone, physical or not, to save me.

All I really have to do is to remember the snail and apply my imagination. One of my favourite (judging by the number of times I've experienced it) losses is the disappearance of money. Since I don’t really think that someone else is benefitting because I don’t have money, the question becomes what life am I gaining from the holes in my bank account? Life is not about how many toys I have or can accumulate. It is about the relationships that I choose to participate in (with any member of any species).  It is about recognition. It is about encountering the world.  All of these are not only free but desperately welcomed. Open my door and my heart and I gain my life.