There is a renowned Canadian artist and sculptor called Dawn MacNutt based in Nova Scotia who creates work about the beauty of human frailty. Nearly two decades ago, in Dawn’s gallery, I fell for a dramatic nobel piece she called “Lydia.”
I had only wandered into her gallery to kill a bit of time, out on a stroll, about to collect my things from my hotel and head to Halifax airport.
I was eyeballing Lydia hard, but didn’t have my wallet, nor did I have time to get it and come back.
“Take Lydia home with you,” Dawn said, offhandedly. “Send me a cheque from Toronto when you can.”
So I did.
But before I accepted her open-hearted offer, I asked her why she totally trusted me, a stranger.
“I have no reason not to,” she told me. “Why start anywhere else?”
I have never forgotten that. It remains a moment of impact in my life.
We get to choose who we want to be, and in that hot minute I felt permission rise in me to allow a part of Who I Am to take it’s rightful place, the part that says: I will trust you first, always. I will believe you first, always. Until I have reason not to.
This past July, I lost reason to believe and trust in someone I treasured mightily. The pain of ending my relationship with them actually felt not like a breakup, but like they had suddenly died; I’ve not know feelings like that before, condont-sharp, biting into me when I least expected.
It was a cruel summer; ironically as my annual #SummerOfYes program went underway. But, keeping it real, as I shared with Jeff Sammut, host of Canada Now on SiriusXM 167, where I do a weekly #ThoughtRevolution segment, saying “yes” this past summer for me was about accepting something I would never have wanted or believed possible.
Saying yes – anyway.
Being in the happy business, I know you can’t have a joyful life as I strive for and enjoy so much, without the contrast of unhappiness; there has to be one to know the other. The air is thin at the top of the mountains most wish to be on. You can fall off at any time.
At the bottom of the mountain, there’s power – so much. That’s where rivers run, where much more grows, where the air is easier to breathe – and where you can’t fall any further.
I stayed at rock bottom. I didn’t rush myself back to some kind of faux-happy, and I was thankful to be on my annual summer break so I could sit in the WTF of it all, and process and mourn.
Eventually, I took steps to re-group. I knew I would, as I felt like it. I renewed my yoga practice. Socialized, a bit. A 12-day gig in London, England, helped; work, family and friends all there.
Being away from the scene of the crime helped tremendously.
My great friend, the Australian medium Katrina Cavanough channelled my dad on a Skype session, and together they both shared wisdom about the “why” of this person coming into my life, and their exit. My father challenged me greatly; I re-read my notes just this weekend.
Then more work and friends in Los Angeles, and then in Vancouver, as summer drew to an end.
In Vancouver I met up with my beautiful buddy Chris. We’ve known each other for years. He knew from phone chats that I had been going through a difficult loss and so he came to my hotel to tap me.
Not what you think.
Meridian Tapping, to be clear, is also known as EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique, which the late godmother of metaphysics, Louise Hay, was really cheerleading before her passing recently.
What I love about Chris is that he puts his own additional expertise in other areas to work, in combination with tapping, as you will see when you watch the video below.
Chris has been doing this for 14 years. I worked with him years ago to heal myself around the topics of my late father, and the subject of money and abundance, always with great relief and success.
Because I knew what to expect, and because I too am a cheerleader of meridian tapping, and, especially Chris’s work, we decided to video my session to help others learn about a valuable tool if they wish.
I’m still not entirely comfortable with being so vulnerable in front of basically anyone who cares to watch my session (Chris joked after that he was “soooo jealous” of my release) but more than any discomfort I’ll get over quickly enough, I believe with my whole heart in making my happiness during my time here on Earth my #1 priority; my entire business is about encouraging you to do the same.
Postscript: I did sleep like a baby that night. The next day I was more in alignment than I’ve been since July. The SUV driver who took me to Vancouver airport announced as I got in his vehicle he thought I was the best dressed man he’d seen all summer. Then he, a retired former business exec, told me about the notion of “radical candour,” which I’ve since gone on to write about in my Spirit & The City column for 24 Hours. My flight from Vancouver to Toronto was over in a blink; I sat next to a delightful mother and daughter who were interesting and fun to chat with and my book was completely absorbing. My luggage hit the carousel first, and I went to a dinner meeting with a great client I always love being with. I proposed an idea and they loved my pitch. It’s now in the works.
I was in the zone.
Arriving home, I walked into my apartment for the first time since July and the typical empty feeling from missing someone no longer living there was gone. Nothing is reminding me of him and I anymore, the way the whole place did all summer. I slept like a baby again that night.
Just over a month later, it feels like Shaun is back. I highly recommend meridian tapping (it’s affordable; Chris is under $100 per session) to anyone with an emotional hurdle – long term or short term – they’d like to leap over and leave behind, once and for all.
Lydia has been moved to a more prominent spot than she has been in for a while. And each time I see her, I am reminded that each of us can always use a little work, as we polish and love the beauty of our human frailty.
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