When you don’t know how
Jun 22nd, 2007 by Michael Max
Life changes. Either by choices we make, or situations that demand it. Life changes and suddenly we don’t know how to do things.
It may come from a choice, that we invite a certain change into our lives. It might come by chance. We are struck ill, or our bodies suddenly transform into something new and strange to us. There is pain, or limited movement, what used to require no attention, suddenly demands all our attention. There is a kind of loss. We no longer navigate the world in the way we used to.
I remember first arriving in Taiwan, even getting across the street seemed to be an act of impossibility. When my blue jeans blew out, and I needed a new pair. I thought seriously that it would be easier to have a pair shipped from the USA by a friend, than to buy them there.
It just came down to not knowing to do things.
I did not know the markets where they were sold. I did not know how to ask for help. Whether or not to bargain. It was later that I discovered the huge selection of clothes, and that in Asia where I am of a more average size, the clothes fit better. And it was assumed by all that you would want your pants altered. It was done on the spot, and included in the price.
Now, health concerns are different than buying blue jeans. But, coping with change, dealing with a world that does not fit the maps we carry silently behind our thoughts, finding a way of doing what we don’t know how to do. These are the skills that regardless of the situation are required to navigate any change. Be it your business or your bowels, your relationships or your asthma, your shoulder pain or your new job. Learning how to do. To allow yourself to immerse and engage the world as it now is, and go from there with the new rules of the game.
Is there loss? You bet. Plenty of it too.
Is there something gained? That is up to you!
