Dearest Readers,

Don’t you love it when you’re given the opportunity to see something old in a whole new way? It’s as though a crack appears in the space around you and a pair of hands reaches through and pries open your surroundings. The next thing you know you’re standing in a new place where everything looks the same.

You’ve arrived in a new realm of understanding.

Last night I spent the evening with a woman who is currently struggling with some pretty heavy issues. She’d reached her breaking point and the dam had burst. She was crying and I was bearing witness to her grief. She told me this emotional pressure had been building for a while but she hadn’t really been aware of it.

Having experienced numerous situations such as this I said, “It’s good to have a mini-nervous-breakdown every so often.”

“No,” she said. “It’s not a breakdown. It’s a break through.”

This is where that crack appeared in the space around me and I was suddenly transformed. For years now I’ve been calling these times when I’ve had to lose it “mini-nervous-breakdowns.” And yet every single episode has brought me relief and some kind personal growth.

I’ve been giving myself the short shrift!

Admittedly, the “breakdown” moniker was somewhat facetious, a little joke to ease the seriousness of the situation, but it also framed the grief in a rather negative way. Why not see the glass half full?

The dictionary on this computer defines “breakthrough” in this way: “A significant and dramatic overcoming of a perceived obstacle, allowing the completion of a process.”

I love this! The obstacle is perceived, which means “to become aware of” and the process is allowed to be completed by the breakthrough itself. How great is that?

Having looked at something in one way for so long this new perception feels monumental. And yet it’s also kind of “duh”. Like, of course.

Amazing what one little word can do, isn’t it? From down to through. That’s a pretty good Direction to follow.

Inspiring Message of the Day: What emotional process am I currently negotiating these days? What obstacle is in my way? I will ask for the ability to perceive the obstacle so that I may experience a breakthrough, allowing for the completion of this particular stage in my Journey.