In my Succulent Wild World program and membership, the theme for this month is JoyFULLY Receiving June, and I’m certainly practicing! I believe that we always teach best what we most need to learn. 

On my daily beach walk last week, with my darling younger brother Andrew & sister in love Jennifer- they were visiting me with their 8 month old yellow lab Oliver- I experienced what I describe as a “wake up fall.”

Oliver and another larger dog were so exuberantly and sweetly playing on the sand, rolling and tumbling together in happy forward motion. 

We commented with the other dog owners on how important it is to watch carefully as bigger dogs play like this, because they can inadvertently crash into humans. We even told the women with the other dog, “keep your knees bent & keep your eyes on the dogs!” 

Then Andrew & I got engrossed in a conversation and the next thing I knew, I was crashing down hard, and my right foot became entangled in the deep sand, and as I was flung backwards, I heard something snap and fell sobbing onto the sand. 

Fast forward to Oliver trying to lick my face, an angel named Mary helping me off the beach with Andrew, and him driving his car illegally onto the beach path to get me, Urgent cares, X-rays and a pair of crutches, and recommended surgery. 

I had broken my right ankle. So why am I calling it a wake up fall? 

I believe that I can learn something from every single thing that happens to me, and I practice living in the marvelous messy middle of life, blending and alchemizing the terrible and wonderfull into a brand new healing mixture. 

Of course, sometimes I resist all of that and just act like a victim;-) 

Learning from the wake up fall is more interesting. Which is distinctly different from thinking that “everything happens for a reason,” which rather annoys me. 

It is always so tempting for the mind to try to make things either/or bad or good, and disregard the nuances and contributive teachings woven into it. 

I’m healing well, and my beloved David and many healers are helping me to take exquisite care of myself. It turns out that I don’t need surgery- which was discovered after I intuitively got a second opinion. 

Here I am, balancing an amethyst crystal on my head, in between bouts of uncontrolled laughter. In the below photo, I show off my cast.

Send me visions of beauty, magic and laughter, and reminders that these few months of changed mobility will be stuffed full of love and healing- I’ll be doing the same. 

Lots of time for writing and creating, some much loved teaching, mentoring and dreaming, as well as doing lots of glorious reading and of course doing no-thing. 

I gratefully receive your good wishes! 

I’m feeling blessed, gratefull, angry, frustrated, impatient and appreciatively curious as I continue to explore this wake up fall experience. 

I first learned about the concept of a wake up fall many years ago from my mentor and friend Patricia. She pointed out one time, that an accident I had experienced as terrible, had great gifts in it- akin to a wake up call. She proclaimed that it was a wake up fall. What had it awakened me to? It took me some time to figure it out, and I eventually did. 

In that instance, and many others since, I avidly practice finding what could be described as the “silver lining” in every experience, and see how it could be contributing to my life, rather than seeming to take away from it. 

This blending work is not about positive thinking, a quick fix or spiritually bypassing the necessary excavations and repairs. Much more than looking on the bright side, it’s about being willing to be and live with, the bright, dull and in between sides. It’s kind of like having rainbow vision. 

My rainbow vision is helping me see that as part of this most recent wake up fall, I am benefiting from extra practicing with three lessons: patience, presence and receiving. 

And there is so much love to receive! I’m practicing scooping it up with all 4 hands- and feet. My happy left ankle is wiggling around, and the left is mentoring the right, as I alchemize this one. 

Know that I feel blessed in this, in most ways, and will be still unwrapping and illuminating the gifts of this particular wake up fall. Let me know if you’ve ever experienced a wake up fall- literal or metaphorical- and what you learned from it.  

Love, 

SARK

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