Observations From the Spectrum

Sometimes I think we are more like cats. We have nine lives to learn how to obtain our wants, needs, dreams and desires. Some get lucky and their path is smooth with normal exits and entrances along the way. Others have a bumpier path littered with obstacles, broken down vehicles and crashes. I am here to help guide you if I can.

Over the course of our lifetimes, we only don’t make it once.  That is the end.  It is terminal.  Until that time, our life depends on biology working.  Breathing and such.  But our lives, which are different, depend on our tool box to overcome whatever obstacles come our way during our lifetime.

Maybe, after all, we are cats.  We have nine lives to live and achieve happiness.  I don’t know.  Just a metaphor and a ponderment.  It certainly rings true with my life.

Thus far, starting at the beginning, I have survived the following Titles:

1. Over a 100 yellow jacket stings
2. Hi Mom.  I think I am bleeding after hitting my head into a cement hitching post
3. A gun to my head in Los Angeles: Part I
4. A gun to my head in Miami: Part II
5. Flipping my Jeep into a river: a broken neck
6. Don’t take the first wave of a set: A big wave wipeout in Maui
7. Would you like to use my knife? Surviving gallbladder disease
8. A helmet in ten pieces: Crashing my bicycle descending Mt. Evans
9. A week long concussion after crashing in town on my bike

My life has made me a survivor.  None of my 9 lives was anything more than misfortune and a chance to learn.  A few of the lives gave me pause and forced me to rethink where I was and where I was going.

Most of my lemons only keep me down until I am healed.  Some of the less in my face ones like a divorce, loss of my father and a diagnosis with a lifelong disease, have given me more pause.  I have had to reflect on who I am and what I need to change about myself to adapt to the new lemon.

Suddenly single after five years of marriage and building a collective life.  Almost all decisions in a marriage are about a collective future. It takes time to process, shift gears and decide if the collective future is the same as your individual one.  Mine was not.  I wanted a geographical change and a shift in career.  I landed on my feet as a teacher and now live happily abroad.

When my father died, I knew it was coming.  I was able to say goodbye.  What I didn’t realize was how much he influenced my life.  I no longer had his ear to bounce ideas about life off of.  He was a rock that washed away.  Since, I have found a few others to help when needed, not replace.  Maybe like you in your relationship with me.

Lastly, going to the doctor sucks, especially when you get anything less than a B+ report.  One of my last grades was an F.  A fatal, if not managed well, terminal diagnosis.  I do know one thing, life goes on until it doesn’t.  That’s a fact.

Now, I try to waste less time and search out the tools to help solve and fix the lemons that life throws at me.  Over the past couple decades, I have become good at fixing lemonade.  I now have an arsenal of strategies in my toolbox.  If you would like, I’d like to share some with you.

• All works at Observations from the Spectrum written by Dylan Netter
• Observationsfromthespectrum.org
• OFTS.blog 
• On? a third point of view – book of Essays
• Marinehippie.com podcast w/ Docstodden.com – dialogue exploring politics and musings of life 
• Horizoncoaching.org – English Tutor and Guide
• beehiveplus1.org