I'm Taking my Ball & Bat & Going Home

Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

Eckhard Tolle’s advice to treat what happens in life as if you had chosen it, I’m convinced, is the secret to higher consciousness. But here I am with bruised ribs that that hurt badly whenever I bend down or move in bed. Instead of treating this as if I had chosen it, I’m metaphorically taking my bat and ball and going home.

I don’t like it and my protest is that I’ve lost motivation to do anything — I’m dropping out. (This isn’t 100% true. I did my billing yesterday and I’ll perform a birthday party this afternoon. But it’s true in spirit.)

How could these very painful bruised ribs be instructive? Well, for one, they have alerted me to this mental pattern of taking my ball and bat and going home. I say to circumstance: If this is the way it’s going to be, I’m not playing anymore.

Of course, circumstance doesn’t give a flying you-know-what if I play or not. My threats are an attempt to exercise control of a situation in which I have no control. These ribs are going to take their own sweet time to heal.

Here I am believing that I must maintain control of everything or else it will fall apart. But I have little control. Maybe that’s the lesson.