It was the hair gel that woke me up.  Up until then, I was able to dismiss the others, barely acknowledging the pattern that was emerging.  But as that extra firm hair gel started to grip and hold, it got my attention.  Even though I had used it daily for weeks, I had never really appreciated its strength before.  Not until the day I applied it…to my face.

Sure, I had a lot on my plate.  Who doesn’t?  Selling a house, buying a new one.  Juggling home, work, a new puppy, a new turn in a relationship.  It was all just more, more, more.  The balls were still being juggled effectively and I was getting by.  Or so I thought.  It was really the application of hair gel to my face which finally got my attention.

Earlier in the week, in the midst of the angst of home selling and contemplating the next steps in my business, I received an email which essentially shook me up and started the unraveling of my very loosely held together life.  It seemed the newsletter I had been publishing for the past 6 years had a title which was “owned” by another person.  This was brought to my attention by means of an email encouraging me to cease and desist use of the name.  In truth, this is not a big deal – it’s only a name – but it was part of my identity and one of which I was proud.  It raised a plethora of emotions I had buried while attending to my very busy life.  And I was left with a huge resentment I was not willing to release.

I planned, and schemed, and ran through a vast number of scenarios, ranging from downright evil to zen-like magnificent.  My righteous indignation ran amok.  And that was not all that ran amok.  In one day I sent two email introductions to the wrong people:  Raymond received the one intended for Randee and Karla R. received Karla L.’s instead.  Now instead of a placement firm, the recipient got a pizza place and instead of an entrepreneur, they got an executive.  A cosmic mismatch.  Then I received a call from my insurance agent wondering what happened to my monthly payment.  I knew I had sent it electronically.  It was later in the day that I received the thank you from Sears for the unexpected, unnecessary payment which of course should have gone to State Farm.  I evidently was concentrating only on the first letter of everything and rushing on to the next to do.  And then I put the hair gel on my face. 

As the gel hardened and increasingly got my attention, it literally made me stop and look myself in the mirror.  I was forced to slow down and face the fact that I was no longer in control (as if I ever really was) and something needed to change.  I flashed on the story of the Buddhist monks carrying the woman across the stream and realized that I was carrying a whole mountain of things with me, clouding my vision, my thoughts and my ability to function effectively.  One by one I had to acknowledge and let go of angers, resentments, perceptions and opinions which were doing nothing but weighing me down and misdirecting my life.  High on the list was the newsletter.  With an acknowledgment to what is right, a release of my pride, and through a synchronistic conversation with a friend, I let go of the old and welcomed in the new version:  A Balanced Perspective.

I hope that my missteps, successes and adventures that I capture each month will bring you some insights and perspectives previously unseen.  Think of this as your karmic wake up call.  If that doesn’t work, a little extra firm hair gel on the face may do the trick!