Cholesterol

My wife mentioned something today that just resonated, “Everything happens for a reason.” She used the example of learning recently of both our high cholesterol count that ushered in a change in our diet as well as her investigating into her genetic contribution to her current situation. She asked her mother about her family history, (who we found out happened to have had high cholesterol, just as my own family did.) That led to her asking her mother about her own cholesterol level.  The question prompted her mom to request a test by her doctor who discovered not only high cholesterol level but also high blood pressure; together, a lethal combination. So presto, she needs medication and is now under enlightened observation. (High risk of strokes run on that side of the family.) So without predicting the future, actions taken now paint different possibilities than before. More detailed than, just saying good-bye to butter.

Awareness was refreshed, and THAT became the REASON. We adopt, adjust, adapt, and accept (wow that’s a lot of A words) whenever we infer that something ‘happened for a reason’. We make our situation a reality by investing action in a decided direction. (By the way, a raw translation of Karma is ‘action’) So then, anything we did not see coming, or perhaps challenges a sacred belief, can be used to test how far we have deceived ourselves into the comfort of predictable-make-believe existence.

   In every case, what reason we assign to an event that we allow to affect us, remains a mystery. But I can tell you this. If it has your attention, then something magical is going to happen besides the same fate as to your third grade best friend.

"What happened to them?" you may ask, now that I brought them up. They drifted out of your life. And you let it happen because it wasn't necessary to keep them close any longer. It wasn't reasonable to hold on, so you let life happen the way it does. We are, after all, just passing through. Still, we want what we want and there’s no getting around it. We will identify something more special than another; then that will be that. I am OK with the habit, because it is my divine right to have preferences. There's a funny saying I keep close by when I consider what I wish to keep and what I can afford to let go.  I will own what I can, and hunger for more.

The epithet goes like this: “Everything I ever let go of had claw marks on it.” David Wallace.