Keep Floating, Jeri! Keep Floating!!

GITK Family,
have you ever had one of those days that would have been "The Day from Hell" had God not given you the grace to float through it?!!  

Well for me, TODAY was that day!  (I kept looking at my jellyfish...)

It started out with an early morning call from an irritated mother.   This mom was FURIOUS to put it mildly.

The only thing I remember saying to get the party started was, "Hello, this is Dr. Dyson..."

Boom!
She took it from there:  "DOC-TAH DIE-son!!
You saw my son on yesterday!  And I need to know WHY---"

(I heard a still small voice say, "Let her talk.  Don't take anything she's saying personal.  Simply help her get the answers to her questions.")


Okay... (flesh dying)
"Ummm hmmm....  Yes...   yes... ..." (flesh dying some more)
5 minutes later...
(Watch your tone, Jeri.  Don't interrupt her.)  She was talking so loudly the other doctors could hear her through the phone.  By this point in the conversation- I'm chilling with a huge smile on my face because I can sense there are other components to her frustration. None of them related to me.
 2 minutes later...
(Remember it's not personal...)  "Ma'am, this is what happened yesterday..."


1 minute later...

Ohhhhhhh my! This was ALL a big misunderstanding!
I'm sorry Dr. Jeri...
I haven't gotten ANY sleep...
I have another sick child at home....
I have a deadline at work that is quickly approaching...
And HE didn't explain it like you just did!  That all makes sense.
I've been going on and on...
Thanks for listening.

No problem.  Glad I could help you.  (spiritual wipe down) *click*

That was just the beginning of a series of misfortunate events for today...
So glad I'm floating....
As my friend says, 'On to the next!' 

Today was a good day!

Giving Up or Yielding?

I absolutely have a servant's heart, but sometimes even the best of us can be tried during times of service. 



Wheeeeeewwwww....

I was exhausted!!

I had been struggling with this one particular area of my life for the past 8 years.  It HAD to be something I wasn't doing right.

All kinds of thoughts haunted me.  I needed answers and I needed them quickly.  I had spent over $15,000 (that's fifteen thousand dollars not fifteen hundred) to be done with this part of my life.  "Let's get this over with 'cause I've got things to do," is the thought that kept flooding my head!

Each time I would get closer and closer but the thing I grasped for leaped to another spot.  And just like a blackmailing scoundrel it kept coming back asking for more!!!

More money.  More of my time.  More of ME!


Why can't I jump this hurdle?
What is wrong with me?




Okay I get it... I will try again but this time I'll Work Eeeeee-VEN harder!   I felt like Tiana from "The Princess & the Frog" when she met the blind-voodoo-lady-who-lives-in-a-boat-in-a-tree-in-the-middle-of-da-bayou.  Hahahahahaha!!!!!!
(Yes, that was me still in frog form talking bout working harder and making it happen! )

Well, I did all I could.  I have given away too much...  I even gave my life away...  I let them take small pieces of my soul with each attempt.  And have gained nothing in return but the wisdom to know that it's ALL right!
I'm okay the way I am right now...



I have been given the highest stamp of approval!  "You know what you're doing, Jeri!  Absolutely you do...  Do not turn around and go back over there. It's done... The cheese has been moved."

All I could hear was Dr.  Spencer Johnson, "the biggest inhibitor to change lies within yourself, and that nothing gets better until YOU change."


A few weeks back I was introduced to my future self....  (you had to be there to get it)
I met the future me and boy...  Boy oh boy oh boy!!!  Wowzers!!! The entire experience was divine.  That time reminded me of a man I met in a Birmingham, Michigan furniture store the Summer of 2000.  I talked with this stranger for three uninterrupted hours in an upscale furniture store. (actually, he talked and I just cried)

He warned me.  He encouraged me.  It was as if he knew me from somewhere....  I mean really knew the core of me.  He was talking to my spirit while my body stood in the room.

I cried and listened...  and cried and listened some more...
I felt like God had allowed me to meet my guardian angel.



Without going into much detail the future Jeri gave me back a precious part of myself I had given away to someone...  Or was that someTHING?   Paaaah-leeeeezz, I don't know WHO had it.   Alls I know is I got my stuff back!!!  And I won't be giving away any more pieces of me...  Not like that anyway!


This entire eight year experience was akin to me running FULL force into a reinforced wall that was not budging.  Each time I was becoming more and more wounded...  I didn't want to quit!  Quitting was for losers and I am no loser.

Sometimes in an effort to GO FOR IT we lose sight of the signs God is showing all around us.  Little signs...
Small reminders...
NO huge Jumbotron messages... 
Itty... bitty... Signs that guide us...


Turn here.
Wait.
Decline that offer.
Speak now.
Say nothing.
Jump!

I realized I was taking control rather than simply letting things happen for me.   I was like a salmon swimming upstream!  I had to learn to be more jellyfish like.

DID YOU KNOW: Jellyfish understand the value of floating rather than swimming through trying waters/emotional times...  They know the proper use of softness (not being rigid) and have the ability to become untangled from the webs of peril in life.   Hmmmm....GET IN THE KNOW!

My mind kept whispering, "Relax!!!  It's out of your control"
So when you see me less forceful than I have been in times past about certain topics, please know that I'm not giving up. 

I'm yielding!
Floating with the current.  
Remaining untangled and waving!