100 Days of Wisdom: Wisdom Day 66- The Wisdom of Seeing Life as It Really Is (because it’s a handful!)

Wisdom Day 66

Read about the 100 days of Wisdom™ Project by Tonya Marie

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“We need to see life as it is, not to hold ourselves captive to a vision of how it ought to be. We need to let go of our incessant need to impose order … to make space in our days and plans so that new things can enter our lives. Surrendering expectations opens us up for the gifts of spontaneity, serendipity, and serenity, enabling us to cast off old agendas of what’s supposed to make us happy. However, this has been one of my hardest life lessons. And yet, when I do, I am always amazed at how life surprises me with joy. You will be too.”

~ Sara Ban Breathnach ~

Selah … sigh. So a funny thing happened on the way to my 100 days of wisdom spiritual blogging practice … a thing called LIFE!

Life in the form of grading midterms and rough drafts, committee meetings, four-alarm personal and professional fires, student review sessions, drafting and grading finals and papers,  the holidays (holidaze??), work outs and travel and spiritual seeking ( oh my!), and, of course, executing this well-intentioned, well laid “plan” of 100 days of wisdom at any cost … oh yeah, and exhaustion. Yep. Real life.

When I embarked on 100 Days of Wisdom my intention was to share via this blog and Twitter some words of wisdom that informed, transformed and inspired me, and my reflections about them, in the hope that my posts would also inform, transform and inspire you. And then came life.

And my wonderful disciplined practice (after 53 or so days without wavering) fell to the back burner. I continued to tweet  but the “daily” blogging practice turned into something to-do. And that to-do continued to fall lower and lower on my ever-growing to-do list! Needless to say, this is an epic fail for the recovering perfectionist, whether spiritually enlightened or not.

As a result,

Wisdom Lesson #13: A Lesson from Sarah Ban Breathnach — Ask for what you need!

[I originally posted this in the SHINE section of www.bythespirit.net. Reprinted with permission.]

“Today start asking. You see a woman with a great haircut? Ask where she got it. Ask for the name of a great paint color in a home accessory shop, a fabulous recipe from a hostess …. Ask for a deadline extension. Ask for the day off. Ask for a raise. Ask when the next sale will be. Ask Spirit for a daily portion of grace. Ask Divine Wisdom for operating instructions. Ask your guardian angel to manifest holy assistance. While you’re at it, ask for a miracle.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance [June 3 passage titled “Ask, Ask, Ask”]

Recently Sarah Ban Breathnach, author of the nineties phenomenon known as Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort & Joy, returned to a seat she’d occupied and indeed owned at that time; a seat across from Oprah Winfrey to discuss spirituality and finding the miracles in the mundane.

Decades having passed since the last time, now in 2012 both women are in a different place and space. Sarah is a proverbial Phoenix rising out of a series of devastating personal and professional losses and Oprah is in the midst of her own challenging life transition from a daily talk show to 24/7 programming as a network owner with The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). This time Sarah’s purpose and intention in her face-to-face with Oprah on Super Soul Sunday (covered in a recent ByTheSpirit.net post) was to share the wisdom of all that had transpired in the years since her initial rise to fame and fortune and the “fall” from its purported grace.

Her story of extreme loss (of all her wealth and, for a time, herself) was both heart-breaking and life-affirming for me for so many reasons. Her reflections on her journey were both encouraging and cautionary.  Her willingness to expose her “brokenness” in front of the millions of us (literally) who’d placed her on a spiritual pedestal and who soaked in her Simple Abundance wisdom like a dry, brittle sponge that absorbs water again, was awe-inspiring. Her honesty and humility seemed to make her advice and her wisdom so much more relevant, accessible and authentic.