When Something Stops Working!

“When something stops working change your policy.” That’s what my Dad kept telling me throughout my entire childhood. The power of this simple statement affected me in ways I would have never thought possible.

Being “me” has not always been an easy journey. At times I seriously questioned whether or not I would survive “being human.” Like the majority of my human peers, I too have been known to do things the hard way… even when a simple solution screams out, “Excuse me, here I am. It’s not that complicated.”

Too often, it seems, our human actions and resulting consequences in life must reach critical mass before we realize, “Oops, something is not working maybe we need to make a different choice.” When the ‘moment of truth’ comes knocking on our door it’s either just in time or too late. If we have been granted a grace period, by our own choice or that of divine intervention, and we do what it takes to turn things around in our lives for the better… and we finally learn our lessons… and not make the same choices that caused our near destruction in the first place… a new day of hope and resolution arrives.

For me, whenever my life reached a point of being too much to bear, and hopelessness set in, something most unusual would happen. I would inexplicably become ill, for a brief period, often as a direct result of one or more extremely upsetting events. And then during the worst of the “inexplicable illness”, a realization would emerge from the “depths of my being” telling me that what I thought was going on in given situations, in actuality, was not so… and that my responses to those events were not working. I had to change my ways or else! With that information in tow there was nothing left I could do but to let go what I thought I knew. In that instant of complete release I would experience a sensation in my heart and solar plexus- beyond anything I could describe! My soul would make its presence known and begin to open me to new ways of thinking. With the old ways gone there was now room for new possibilities.

“When something stops working change your policy.” The affect my father’s words had on my life unknowingly prompted me to make some very daring choices- decisions which in turn led me to engage in some incredible life experiences at home and abroad. The effects transformed me to my very core. If things in my life were not how I wanted them to be, I knew without a doubt, it would be up to me to choose again. Only I had the true power to change how I did things in my life.

My father, in the last stretch of life, sleeps a lot. During his dream state he talks to God, often sharing those conversations with me. Throughout his life his unique ways of being in the world were frequently misunderstood, and at times created a lot of turmoil in the lives of those he loved. In my innocence as a child I took note of all the words he spoke, to heart. The words that caused pain and sadness I learnt to let go. Not doing so meant continued pain and sadness. The words that brought great wisdom I listened to and in turn they helped me succeed. Though my father was not a perfect man, he always knew, “When something stops working change your policy.” Thank you Dad!

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