TALES FROM THE BOBBI LAMA

I have enjoyed the power of exercise over the years, enjoying how my mood picks up after my brain gets a thorough blast of oxygen. These past couple of years especially, with the passing of my husband, I have committed to some daily physical activity to help my brain chemicals with the grieving process. Exercise really helps me break the cycle of perseverating about all the related losses that come with the death of a spouse. I now work at noticing my thoughts when I get into a downward spiral. I’ve learned to stay aware and change the channel when I notice my overall mood get heavy. Afterall, they are just thoughts, made by my brain. I am well aware that I can change them at any time. When I am sad, I work at being grateful for all I do have to pull me out of that sadness. When I am afraid, I challenge myself with creating constructive solutions. And yesterday, I was given just that opportunity, as I found myself swimming alongside of a snake!

To this minute, I can’t say how I exited the pool except to wonder if I flew. The panic from thinking it was a diamondback poisonous rattler within arm’s length left me shaky. I also pictured it getting out of the pool and continuing to be a threat. That made me grab my phone from a distance to take a zoomed-in picture immediately so I could identify it if it bit me. Needless to say, I then left the area in a hurry to get into my house and get the door closed tightly and locked! I figured if it ever got into my house, I would simply have to move out!

Now what amazed me was how consumed in thought I was for the next couple of hours by this “brush” with a little snake. I found myself imagining all the places I would walk outside where it could be slithering and I would accidentally step near it. I then started to go on several websites to see if I could find out if it was poisonous. I sent the pictures to several knowledgeable people hoping they would tell me it wasn’t a rattler. And then this morning, when I got up, I didn’t want to open my door to go outside near the pool. Instead, I went right to the window to see if I could spot it, but it wasn’t anywhere I could see. I wondered if it was really gone away, or just not in my line of sight…or maybe in the filter basket which now I refused to go check for fear I’d be close enough for it to strike me. I called the man who cleans the pool every week to warn him, and he said this is not uncommon, and he’d take care of it for me when he came. Problem solved.

So now I realized how funny that I allowed this little snake (which is actually a symbol of protection, good luck, and good health) to all but hold me hostage and consume my thoughts. How simple it would have been to just go inside and ignore the whole thing. Until the pool guy comes in a few days, I figured I might not be swimming. However, bottrom line, I was fine, the snake would be fine and most likely slither on its merry way, and I would go on mine. All that had happened in the end was just my thinking. What a great reminder of our own power to control that.