Although I had originally planned to have 3-4 blog posts on the science and physiology of gut dysfunction, I found that I kept losing interest in writing those articles! I’m thinking that if it feels dry and boring for me to write it, how much more so for those of you reading at home? I’m sure I will get around to writing down all of that information, because I do believe it is important to understand your body, and how it works. However, as soon as I decided it was time for an Intermission in the Gut Instinct Blog, I came face to face with the realities of the traumatic passing of a close family member. Real life is not an impersonal article on how chronic disease develops. Real life is raw and sometimes extremely hard, asking us to dig deep into ourselves to see what we are actually made of. Real life is saying “absolutely” when your partner tells you he needs to travel to another hemisphere to be there for his mother. Real life is when a surgery and estimated 2 weeks recovery becomes a scary, unexpected, series of unfortunate events over the course of 6 months that ultimately ends in loss of life and a traumatized family.
When trauma enters your life, you can choose to respond from a place of presence or get overwhelmed by the waves of fear, insecurity and grief. I was merely an observing bystander from afar to most of the pain and the loss, but watching a beloved partner suffer through that type of loss produces its own special kind of pain.
Here is what I have learned from this process:
· All we really have is this moment of now. Nothing else is guaranteed. So ask yourself how you want to spend your moments and enjoy them with your whole self.
· Literally do NOT sweat the small stuff, because that’s all it really is: Small Stuff. When the Big Stuff shows up, you suddenly and very decidedly know the difference.
· Always Choose Love. You will win at life and relationships if you can understand that Love is always an option that is available to you even in the face of hurt feelings, misunderstandings, miscommunications, or cultural differences.
· People really are doing the best they know how to do with the tools, capacity, resources and trauma they have received in this life. Let them be who they are, where they are. Their progress and journey in this life is none of your business. You have your own life to live. Get busy living it.
Gut Instinct Blog: to be continued....