Dis-n-Dat #1

Dis-n-Dat #1

Yesterday I got up early to ride my bike over to the Little Red Caboose to get a haircut. The air was already heavy and getting hotter by the minute. Haircuts are a social event and my barber regaled me with story after story of his life and experiences with the backdrop of some of my favorite record albums on the wall. . I forgot he only took cash and failed to hit the ATM before I got there so I had to make a plan to return later in the day to “square-up”. I was disappointed in myself for not planning better.

As I rode south in the ever growing heat I was reminded of our emotion of the month for July “discomfort”.  As you remember, we pick a feeling word (or it picks us) and we agree to accept the feeling as deeply as possible and love ourselves for having it and being brave enough to embrace it. Not a simple exercise, I assure you.

I made it to yoga without incident, except I was already hot and tired and sat outside on the bench watching the cardinals and doves show off their Saturday morning tricks , hydrating for class. Class was full and my lung situation (TX-TB) gave me fits during class as I was unable to get full breaths. The teacher reminded us that “if you need to take a knee, take it. BUT if you are getting too comfortable in your postures, work a bit harder, discomfort is a good thing”. (Ah-ha…I sensed a theme brewing and my antennae perked up). I was wiped out after class and sat out front finishing my water and trying to catch my breath. I then saddled up and headed home through the Saturday noon traffic of folks on missions and thought about the slang word “DIS” and it relation to other words it is combined with.

My limited rapper understanding of “DIS” is that it is short for DIS-Respect. I first heard it in a Maximum Security Prison I used to volunteer at. One of the guys was going on about how “he dis me and he dis me and he’s a %$^&*er cause he dis me too” I had to ask one of the inmates next to me what the heck it meant. “Oh, OK I got is now” I said to his explanation…………I was actually glad he explained because my assumptions were WAY off base. Assumptions tend to go that way with me…….out of the ballpark.

I was beat when I got home and Edy had a really good idea to go to the market near us and eat lunch and listen to music. We made a huge salad to take with us and agreed that Fish Tacos would be the perfect meal. The sun was straight up in the sky when we got there and ordered and we found a table in front of the band with a sliver of shade. The band was one we liked and the fish tacos were perfect. Man it was hot. Discomfort continued until I got us some ice water and slid the table closer to the shade sliver.   We boogied for as long as we could stand it and then made our way back home to cool off by the pool for a bit. Discomfort continued as the sun beamed down and the woven seats imprinted my skin.

 As I lay there I kept breaking up dis-words that came to mind.

Discourage
Discomfort
Dishonor
Disappointed
Disgrace
Discord
Disease
Disagreement
Discredit

I’ll add more as they come to me.

I recently read a good article by someone I “respect” who suggested that one should never “dis” their past in any form, because all the lessons, growth and evolution that has happened from past experiences would then have been for naught and wouldn’t THAT be a shame. “True-DAT” I said out loud as I read it.

I then returned to my list and tried to break up the words a bit more in the context of the article I has just read. “Humm….OK, Dis-courage – When I am discouraged I am dis-ing my courageous self, OK I get that”.”Next,  Dis-comfort , OK, I can see that when I am out of my “comfort zone” things are uncomfortable sometimes debilitating so. Somehow I sidetracked to having conversations with colleagues long ago about how many hours we worked a particular week. “Ha, you only worked 90 hours !!!, You SLACKER !! It would go on like the Monty Python skit month after month. Mind you these were both women and men and from what I know about feminine energy now, those poor ladies were working themselves into a pickle and a half. Us guys were just poofing up and showing off. Sure we had boats and cars and kids and homes but we never saw them or enjoyed them. All the comforts of hard work. Diss’ed in the highest order for wanting more and more. There is something very wrong with that whole equation and somewhere inside of me I knew it was wrong.

I continued down the list and began to feel that this would be a longer science experiment that I had originally planned on. Science is like that.

Edy and I went to church early and sat in the front. It’s our second time being so close so now it is a “family tradition”. Music was great and the folks as happy and energized as ever. The visiting pastor was engaging and had a good message. In the middle of the service there is the opportunity to get a prayer partner and bow together to add an exponential charge to the matter at hand. I stood in line while others went before me and I’ll be darned if I did not end up in front of the main man himself to combine our energies in sending a message on-high. I really can’t remember much of what was said as I was kind of transfixed in the moment,  but I do remember him saying something about “no need to feel discouraged, You ARE Courageous and all the past is in the past,  your eyes and heart only need to look forward now.  I was touched and gave him a blessing as I walked back to sit with Edy.   The theme continues and it occured to me that to "dis" anything is a choice, pure and simple. Sure, we all have "bouts with doubts" but if we just go with them as deeply as we can then this allows a BIG shift and other even bigger stuff to come forward as in dis-apear or disolve. As this realization took hold I gave I gave a big “Amen, and added another True-Dat” . It was a busy morning already.