I missed the memo about reaching the beach and feeling the feelings.
You know that thing about stuff happening in 3s? I don’t know if that’s an actual thing, or if it just happens that once something happens twice, you’re more likely to notice when it happens a third time. However it works, last week, I think the universe was trying to send me the same message on three different occasions, so I’m trying to take the hint.
Message No. 1 came when the lovely and hilarious Glennon Doyle Melton over at Momastery posted a link to the latest viral video from the incomparable (and oddly sexy…) Louis C.K.
This video killed me…both with its humor and its truth. I definitely catch myself using my Smartphone as a way to escape from unpleasant emotions…boredom, frustration, worry can be temporarily suppressed as I experience the illusion of interconnectedness that social media and the 24-hour news cycle provide.
But as Louis C.K. pointed out, we’re ultimately so much better off if we just let ourselves feel the feelings, even the painful ones. If I constantly distract myself from my feelings, then yeah, I avoid the painful ones, but then I short-change the good ones, too.
Which brings me to The Fixx…as part of my husband’s birthday extravaganza, we recently went to see The Fixx perform in concert. “Who are The Fixx?” you ask…well, they were part of the 80s New Wave, but they’ve continued to record and tour and just be exceedingly awesome in the decades since. Most will remember a couple of their big hits (“One Thing Leads To Another” and “Saved by Zero” from their smash 1983 album Reach the Beach, among others), but their music has gotten more beautiful and more interesting since then. My husband and I are definitely “Fixxtures”, as they say.
Cy Curnin and crew put on a great show, and they played one of my very favorite songs of all time…”Treasure It”. This was message No. 2. Seriously….think about these lyrics…
When you’re feeling insecure, do you treasure it?
I treasure it
Feel the pull of nature’s course and treasure it
Oh, I treasure it
Let that sink in, people…treasure feeling insecure. As uncomfortable as they are, moments of insecurity are when we feel ourselves having to open up to a new idea or experience. Put another way, sometimes when we grow, it hurts. But growth is usually a positive thing, so embracing insecurity, treasuring it, even, that could be good.
And message No. 3…this one came because I am particularly dense, and after getting home from the concert I was dinking around on my Smartphone (sweet irony!) and came across this image….
Aw, c’mon! There it was, spelled out in oil paint and in the gentle words of Bob Ross (can’t you just hear his sweet, soothing voice…) You need the darkness to appreciate the light. Pretty simple, but hard to remember. I apparently needed to get this memo three times, but alas, memo received.
I Missed The Memo 