So, I got some great words of wisdom from a dog recently. Okay, it wasn't really from a dog. It was in a book written from a dog's perspective. But this was a very wise dog.
In a difficult moment for his owner he said, "This is just a crisis, a flash in time."
I loved it.
When we hear crisis it is never connected with the word just. Saying that it's just this seems to downplay it. And that was the point.
It's easy to let a crisis take over our lives. It's easy to get lost in the crisis, to hold onto it, to carry it with us. But it's just a flash in time. It's temporary. Usually really, really temporary.
So if it's such a small part of life, why does it have such power? I think it's because it's almost always painful. We are always more aware of pain than lack of pain.
Unless you've been in pain for a very long time I doubt you get out of bed in the morning and say, "Wow! I'm not in pain today." But I'll bet all of us have gotten out of bed and said, "I don't feel good" or "Ouch, that hurts."
I certainly do not mean to minimize crises. They suck. They hurt. They can be devastating.
But we don't need to give them anymore power than they take. And I think sometimes we do. I know I do.
There have been times in my life when I was in deep personal crisis, I mean deep enough that my therapist wanted to see me twice a week and called me at home to check up on me. And then something happened, something out of the blue, that distracted me for a while. For a brief while I was not thinking about myself and my situation. And the dark sky got a little lighter.
The problems didn't go away, but I seemed to have a slightly different perspective -- a little more power to go on. It's not a cure, just another tool to fight with.
So, in my next personal crisis, I will try to remember that it is just a flash in time. The sky will clear again someday. Birds will sing. And I will laugh.