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Vibrant Days…. 

Flourishing with Sensory Processing Sensitivity

September 2014

 

Relate

It happened last night. I was driving home with take out and one of my kids. I glanced over and noticed her signature smile, her hair blowing all around the car and that giggle. Her giggle pierced the air and my heart. Joy seemed tangible as my entire body refocused in the moment. Suddenly I had a burning desire to get her home and in our circle of eating dinner I envisioned halting the conversation and staring at each family member, one by one and slowly telling them how much I adored them…how much they meant to me, how living with them meant more to me than anything. Tears would gush down my cheeks and hit the floor. Would they think I was dying? Would they giggle and say “of course Mom we know you love us.” It’s these moments of fragile awareness that are happening more frequently lately. Out of nowhere I will catch myself rapt in the moment, seized by the beauty and miracle before me. Can you relate? Does this happen to you? Yes life is hard. Yes it’s challenging. I am an individual who is familiar with struggle. But lately something else has been happening: these moments of capturing the eternal. Moments that feel so fragile I want nothing else but to freeze them. And then before I know it the moment is gone.

A friend and I decided a month ago to copy Oprah and write three things in our journals each morning that we were grateful for. At first I feared it would seem superficial, even impossible. A week later my eyes began a daily scan for the good. It’s as if this simple exercise has installed a mechanism where I not only see but realize the profundity of the moment. Last week I left a family member and wept so hard I had to slow down while driving. I was bursting with pain and while crying the phone rang and I dared pick up the phone (yes blue tooth) and continued to cry. It felt risky and painful but the next morning while reviewing the day for what to record that event of distress and sharing with another was at the top of my list. What appeared and felt awful transformed into beautiful.

Most of us are facing some staggering challenges related to health, relationships, work, or loss. For the sensitive we tend to over think and feel intensely. Will we scan for the inherent beauty in these challenges not in a superficial way but rather discovering what lies within them that possibly could be brushes of the eternal? It’s an option I’m willing to try.

Connect

Have you seen this? Sensitive folks are hitting the big screen. Feel free to join in.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1795131939/sensitive-the-untold-story

Watch

For those of us returning to school, sending someone else or simply remembering how sweet it could be.

 

Ponder

Sometimes in this broken world…you have to hang on to beauty for dear life.

– Lynne Hybels