Key themes:
understanding, non attachment,  illumination, inner knowing, achievement, lessons learned, radiation, it wasn’t what it looked like, not how you planned, revelation of the truth, what it’s worth.

Do any of you remember the show “Antiques Roadshow”? The selling line was “Collectors discover that they can turn their trash into treasure”. Basically you could bring some article that you had in your house that you either believed was worthless or was very valuable. You’d bring it to the expert, who would evaluate it and – through their years of study – be able to identify the markers of a true object of value and something that was – economically – worthless. Now, just because it was economically worthless, didn’t mean the object didn’t have some other value. Perhaps it was the tea set that the passed away grandmother used and despite not having a resellable value, to the family it had tremendous value.

Let’s be honest May has been a rough month. At times it felt like we were toothpaste tubes getting squeezed for the last drops. Something last week should have popped. Like a break in the clouds, a window finally being opened in a stuffy office, stalled train finally moving, the match finally sparks in the damp woods. This movement gives us an opportunity to start observing our situations with new eyes.

Going back to the roadshow example, what makes someone an expert in identifying valuable objects is years of experience and education. Education, after a certain age, stops coming from the classroom and starts coming from the day to day. If we are able to take a step back from our situations and evaluate them in terms of: what did I learn there? We find that we’re actually in the University of Life every day.

Remember the first time you went into Biology class? It sounded like they were speaking Greek. But at the end of the semester if you looked back, whether you enjoyed it or not, you realized that you learned something new. The first time we walk into any new situation, we will have no idea of what we are doing. Slowly, with time, practice and experience, we learn to decipher what’s useful, what’s valuable, what’s the best way to approach, and what’s best to leave behind. We also learn that not everything goes the way we want, or planned, and some things are just to help us learn more. This doesn’t make the experience of any lesser value.

Where we tend to get stuck as humans is in our bipolar thinking: it’s either good or bad. I’ve either succeeded or failed. The relationship was good or he/she was an asshole. But life isn’t like that. Sometimes we date the asshole so we have a better idea of what we’re looking for next time. Sometimes we fall down in a job so that when the job that’s meant for us comes along, we’re ready to tackle that same situation. If we are able to glean understanding and illumination from every experience in our life, then absolutely nothing is a waste of time. This is the practice of non attachment. But if we put our experiences into two categories of success or failure, we have automatically decided that giant chunks of our life – which we CANNOT control – are worthless to us.

So let’s remember the people who bring what they believe are priceless family heirlooms and discover that really the only market value is sentimental – is it worth any less? I’d like to ask you to take a look at how you evaluate the pieces in your life. Is everything in a system of duality? If the relationship doesn’t last long – does it have to be a failure? If there’s an argument in the family – are you bad people? Can we find a broader spectrum of processing the events of our lives that allows more feelings of abundance even where the situation may look different? Don’t throw out Grandma’s tea set just because it’s not going to make you rich. Allow what it meant to you to be its richness.


Feel stuck in life?  Check out my personal development program.

Greatness awaits!

www.erikakatherine.com