When Life Throws You a Curve

"Life challenges don't have to end the game"

Well, one thing is for sure, when life throws you a curve if you just stand there like a deer in headlights, you might get hit!

But check this, curves by nature (it IS a curve) does not travel a straight line. If you close your eyes and hope for the best, how do you know that the curve ball isn't going to be something you actually want to swing at?

I've seen plenty of curve balls go across the plate and the batter gets a strike because he doesn't swing. He assumes its a bad pitch and relaxes on it. (or maybe he just closed his eyes, what do I know) Ok, I have taken that far enough. LOL

Often we feel that when something challenging happens to us in life that it is not in the playbook. That it is something we should discount or put our defenses up against. I believe all of these events are part of the game that you are in. You can't take out parts you don't like or find appealing, you keep your eyes on the ball and stay ready to act.

If it doesn't come to the plate you might still see how to make it work for you. Some of the best homers would not have been a perfect pitch. The batter keep his eye on the ball adjusted to the pitch and swung like a champ. He stayed in the game. (Ok, so I went back to the baseball thing!)

So life is meant to be lived. Be sure not to allow mental blocks to keep you from staying in the game. Things may not be what you want or would desire at the time, but who is to say it is not what we need at the time to hit that home run.

It may even be what we desire but at a different level that we are not seeing until later.

You are saying this fool is not making a bit of sense.

Let me explain....

Well better yet, let me tell you a story......

Suppose you are a single struggling mom, who wants a new car but you can't decide which one is a better deal. You have a new grandchild that you pick up on the weekends from out of town.

The car you get needs to be a gas saver and safe. You have no idea which car will fit your needs and money is tight so you have been putting it off for as long as possible.

The clunker you have is paid for and looks nice but runs like a gas guzzling bootleg reject. Broke down 3 times in 2 months making you late for work. Yet, they don't want you to take time off from your 9a.m. to 6p.m. job to shop around because your job is full steam ahead and they say they need you there.

In fact, if you are late again, they may fire you and hire someone who can be there.

One day you are headed home from that miserable job and this idiot pulls right out in front of you and of course, you can't stop in time and you ram his rear quarter.

Both cars are destroyed for the most part.

You are shaken up and knocked out but barely scratched. You are blessed basically. You wake up in the hospital under observation for a night and in line for a scan.

You feel fine but you are worried about your job because you will miss the next day at least, and you don't have a car.

This is a curve ball thrown to you. Challenges in life strikes once again.

You can let it make you severely stressed and depressed because it is a total disruption in your routine. It presents immediate challenges and possibly long term problems if you lose your job which is bound to happen because you can't afford a car even if you knew which one to look at.

So do you sit in that hospital bed worried all night about tomorrow?

What if I am fired? How will I get a car that works and that I can afford? "I can't believe this is happening to me, why" you ask, "why......"

What happens if you spend all night long saying to yourself, "why me, why me, why me, oh I can't believe this is happening why me, it's a travesty, it's so wrong, all I want to do is work, see my grandchild and live my simple life, why Lord why?"

You mind shuts down in grief as you step away from the plate just after the ball is pitch as you notice it's a curve. Your last serious thought was to not even go back to work, there is no way they will allow you return, besides you now don't have a way to get back and forth.

Two days later you decide you to go in since your ride from the hospital is willing to take you. At least you can get your stuff out of the desk.

When you arrive prepared to learned that it will be your last day, you instead find that the fellow employees have gotten together to fix up a second car one of the employees had in the yard.

The accident had shed light on your situation with transportation needs in a different way.

Very few of them knew you but those that did appreciated the type of person you were and the work that you did. So much so that they sought permission from the boss to pass out leaflets to help you in a time of need for donations to provide you with reliable transportation.

You see sometimes we worry about what we can't control and we do it for nothing. Instead we should focus more on what we can do to deal with all potential outcomes and then just let life.

Meanwhile, if we are being the type of person that we should strive to become, it is more likely that people will be there in some way to walk beside us. Stay positive and keep your head up knowing that you are doing life in a way that you are in line for God's Blessings (or good favor) and have faith.

(That's my story and I am sticking to it)

What Happens When Life's Challenges are Seen in a Different Light

Our minds are powerful, there are alternate ways that we can choose view challenges that we face.

Supposed instead, as you lye staring at the ceiling in that hospital bed, you first did the same thing that I do when I am in the barber's chair..... (They are like "huh?")

I like going to the barber because for that 45 minutes in the chair, I can be completely relaxed. I am not wasting time, I am not goofing off. I am successfully and productively making myself a little more presentable to the public, which is a good thing. (As small of an improvement that it might be, it's an improvement,lol.)

Since I look at that block of time in this way, it is a wonderful block of time. I don't feel pressure or stress about anything that I need to or could be doing. As a matter fact no matter what is going on, I choose to make that my quiet mind, wind down time. I am doing something that is necessary and doesn't require any thinking, decisions or actions by me. In fact it is therapeutic!

You should feel the same way if your lying in a hospital bed basically. You could be dead! But you are not only alive, conscious, and thinking well, you have your functioning limbs, etc...your blessed.

Furthermore, you have a license to completely relax because you did absolutely nothing to put yourself there, so you couldn't do anything different.

"But I could have gone a different route." Why would you, do you have a crystal ball? No That's just self defeating negative thinking time bomb that can be deployed about everything which ever happens to you in life, that's the other lady. Let's not go there!

You didn't cause this, you are just going to have to deal with it, pray about direction and recovery from the incident and then move on from the self pity because it is useless. (and if you don't want to pray then don't that's up to you)

Ok, if you look at it that way guess what?

You are now relaxed, sitting back chilling. You have decided your going to make the most of this little well deserved break in the hospital bed. Shoot maybe you will get 2 days, lol.

Ok, since you are relaxed and have a mind clear of self pity, grief and depression you can now think through the reality of the big picture.

If these clowns are vindictive and fire you over missing time at work because of this,is it really such a loss. (besides you might have a legitimate lawsuit, I don't know.)

I am figuring if they care so little about their workers that they keep them under that kind of pressure that the work environment has to be stressful everyday. So you figure that it would be hard but really it would be a wash in the long run to force you to get away from there.

You are just realizing how much you actually hated it there and you some how seem relieved that you might get fired. At the end of the day you say, either way you can't control it and it is what it is. If you stay good,if they fire you good. The pluses and minuses equal out at the end of the day by the end of the game.

So your next thoughts are how to handle life in the event that you are fired. You think about all the options with other companies that may have similar or related positions. You also think about how hard it is to get a job.

You have decided that once your out of the hospital you be putting in applications online regardless just because you feel so uncertain and unhappy at your current job. You want to know what is out there and it is only one way to find out.

You also make it a mission to see what courses are available at and find out what tuition assistance you qualify for. This way no matter what happens you know what course of action you will be likely to take in the future. Or what plans to make to escape your circumstances and shape your future.

Now what about transportation?

Well you have to get rid of the car but it's not as much stress about whether is the right decision that part is no longer and option. It's the only decision. You call this guy that you gave a ride to one Saturday while you were picking up your Grandson to pick up his new car.

You wanted to know about how he liked his car, figuring it was the best place for you to start with info. Well he is not new to cars so he asks you some questions about your needs. He immediately knows that what he got is not what you need and he offers to take you to some places when you get out that will have cars more in line with what will serve you better.

The cars were lovely but what you didn't expect was to also see a father of a child who goes to school with your Grandchild. You have met him once and you had a long conversation about life or work or something. Doesn't matter. What does matter is he was impressed by that one conversation and said he would help get approved for any car within her budget and suggested on a year old to save on depreciated loss as long as she had her job.

If she didn't have her job he would help her get something older but cheap and in good condition.

So that is a step in the right direction.

You found out that you could go back to school to get a 2 yr degree doing something that you always had a passion for. Or at least it allowed you to utilize your passion in the job.

The point is, this catastrophic event actually pushed her to make some changes she needed to make in her life which she may have never made or not until much later.

Life Challenges on the Wide Screen

So when you take a big picture view at the challenges we face in life, you realize that often there are

hidden lessons
seeds for growth
lasting rewards
escape from other pains, poisons
new relationships
new opportunities

It's all got to do with how you are developing your attitude and way of thinking right now while things are OK.

If you are consistently working on yourself now it causes you to not only be mentally prepared for such tragedies but you are doing things in the mean time that also helps to position you best for such tragedies.

Notice how the lady, took time to give the guy a ride. Notice how she has a relationship with her Grandchild that is important but how she also cares about people in general which helps them see the good in her and assume the best. She is a caring person who looks out for people.

She doesn't even want to disappoint the people that work with her although they are idiots.

A person with this attitude is not in the world alone.

See what I mean.

If you have the right attitude and try to treat people a certain way there will just be someone there to call when disaster strikes.

You don't have to ask them for help you ask them for guidance and advice based on your needs and relationship and they respond as they are able and you just keep pressing on with what you learn or are given as guidance.

hmmm....I wonder where their responses comes from...

See often we make life's challenges just a little bit more of a challenge than they need to be because we only consider the pain and the suffering. We don't stand there and wait for the ball to get closer to the plate to see if we should duck or stand for the next pitch.

Sometimes maybe we stare the ball down to the plate and if it looks half decent just swing at it.

Make the ill connection and just watch it fly!

Just watch it fly

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Have You Reflected on Your Life? Are Changes Needed?
When Is It Time To Let Go? Could be a powerful life change