your daily rock : say “wow”
“I used to get caught up in drama, and now when there is drama, I just say ‘wow.'” -Cindy Dollar
In 2010, a friend of mine died in mid-sentence, another died after two years of the agony of Lou Gehrig’s disease, another friend’s life changed irrevocably in one regrettable instant. It was a year of loss. I told my friend Kurt. He sent back a one-line response: “Do you do yoga?” It was a perfect response, one that made immediate sense to me. Yes, I needed to get out of my head and into my body. I called a local yoga teacher the next day and booked a private session, just to get started.
I went.
She walked toward me, the most perfectly formed tiny human being I think I’ve ever encountered. Suddenly, I felt like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade float, huge and floating untethered above her. She knew I was there to mourn and to deepen my physical experience of loss, and she embraced that as she taught me simple poses. I could feel muscles stretching in my shoulders, my legs.
We talked about loss, and letting go. We talked about drama. “I used to get caught up in drama,” she said, “and now when there is drama, I just say ‘wow.'” It is a form of detachment, that wow. “Give me an example,” I asked. “My dog killed a squirrel and left it at the bottom of my stairs,” she answered. “I used to get all worked up about it, but now I just look at the squirrel and say ‘wow.'”
This simple wisdom has changed my life.
Delta Airlines cancels my flight? A quiet wow.
The man in front of me in the express lane at the Piggly Wiggly has 35 items? A silent wow.
A friend betrays my confidence? Wow.
Wow, with no attachment to outcome, without sarcasm or cynicism. Just wow. Detached from drama. A quiet, simple wow.
Can you say a quiet, simple “wow” today to detach from the drama that swirls around you?
Love,
