Frame of Reference Check

There are things that happen periodically in life to change your frame of reference. I'm not talking about the obvious milestones, but the occasional thing that takes you by surprise, grabs you and shakes your vision.

A humorous case in point...about 10 years ago, I was at church in my hometown with my mom, and my sister and her family. After communion, I saw a woman I recognized as a high school acquaintance walking down the aisle. My internal monologue went something like this:

"My God, I wonder what's she's been up to? She looks like she's 30...(beat, beat)...oh crap! We are 30!"

Back to yesterday, and another reframing moment...

As I was cleaning out email, I came across one from a few months back, in which a high school friend launched her blog. We were pretty close in school, and she could have me and my family in stitches over stories she told about her job as an aide at the local nursing home. She was determined to become a nurse, then chose to marry and have children shortly after high school, just as I was headed off to college, the big city, and the path of my own life.

We are no longer close, but have kept casually in touch over the years, exchanging friendly emails, Chistmas cards and the like. Anyway, I popped over to her blog to check in and discovered that she will undergo diagnostic surgery this week to determine if she has breast cancer.

Instantly I was worried and concerned about her, her family, her health. She is surrounded by community of people that I am sure will support her, and for that I am thankful. And I will pray for her.

But here's the frame of reference tick that occured to me later, as I was mulling this over. This is something that happens to my parents' friends, not mine. My peers are not old enough for this...oh crap...we are.

So the person who is banging on my keyboard tonight has had an incremental change in self-realization...a moment of clarity and reframing...a modest contextual shift. As I look in the mirror tomorrow morning, I will actually see myself, and it will be that way for a brief period, before routine and distractions move me away from the truth of my being.

So here's to you, Sister Sunshine, and to your surgery, and to your lovely family. Thank you for the moment of clarity. I pray God it's a false alarm.

----------------------
For those who are so inclined, I would ask you to send your prayers, good Karmic vibes, or pink beams of love out into the universe to help Sister Sunshine through this time. I'll not link her blog here, but will periodically offer updates.