New Year’s Eve saw me bringing in the New Year with grape juice and club soda (LOVE club soda!) with my husband, Shane, our son Will and our white (yes, white) miniature schnauzer, Daxby.
For the past month, I had been redefining goals, doing some personal change work and I was feeling good.
We went to sleep to the sound of fireworks in the distance and sleep came quickly.
I awoke in the morning, brimming with creativity and good will. The feel of this New Year was full of promise…
…and then, there it was, just before breakfast and just before the house began to fill with family.
Epiphany
It snuck up on me.
It was unexpected.
It was miraculous.
It came in with joy.
Understanding at a soul level.
It came in swiftly and it stayed.
Laughter bubbled up and burst forth.
My smile lasted for hours.
What was it?
I’ll start so many years ago when I was a young girl. My family was fairly well off middle class. Dad was an instrument technician in a small town in New Brunswick, Canada. We were better off than most and Dad worked hard, putting in long hours building a house for us and clocking as much overtime as he could.
It all caught up with him one night when he was bent over, repairing a steam pipe. It burst open and the entire left side of his body was scalded with blistering, hot steam. He almost died.
My Dad lived, the bright red, vivid scars from the top of his head, past his ears, across his face, down his arm and leg, all bearing testament to the human spirit and the reliance of the body. Those scars faded with time but little did I know of the invisible scars that I, personally, would carry.
Fast forward to now.
Looking back, I saw the struggle that I created in the my life was a direct result of this one incident. I successfully finished University with no debt and created a number of successful small businesses, including a cleaning company that I built from nothing.
Now,I am in the process of enlarging my coaching practice. I had success, yet,there was always something niggling at the edges.
There were periodic upsets, accidents, disasters that would happen. . .I began to wait for the other shoe to drop. Through it all, I told myself that there was no reason for me to feel lack. My family of origin had never experienced lack, at all.
And then. . .New Year’s Day, after doing all of the personal change work, using the principles of NLP, in the preceding month, there it was, presented to me on a platter.
The memory split wide open. Dad almost died, Dad couldn’t work for 2 months during the recovery period, he didn’t even know if he would ever return to work. Savings were depleted quickly, bills and debt piled up, and the little bit of compensation did not go far.
Lack
Right there
Hidden in plain sight
A LIE I had told myself for years (that we had never experienced lack)
Yes, it was a short time and it was traumatic for an almost 8 year old and it explained so much.
Burst wide open
To have that deeply buried trauma gone. . .amazing.
I can only give you a glimpse of my experience…just a peek…of my peak…
And it does not mean adversity won’t ever be in my life again. Life has it’s challenges, doesn’t it?
It does mean that new challenges will be met with a new mindset, one free from that trauma…and that is a position of power.
So, the epiphany? (and for me, it was a big one)
No matter how far we’ve come, there is still farther to go.
We are not done, we are a work in progress.
When we least expect it, if we’ve done the work, we can have the most powerful experience of change, a sudden realization of truth that can change our lives forever.
Because we can. . .just like that. . .
Photo credit: Tony the Misfit
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Sherie
I am a Relationship Coach who helps others create happy, healthy, loving relationships…including the relationship they have with themselves…by breaking through those blocks and barriers to success. I use various techniques gathered through training as a Master Practitioner of NLP, timeline, hypnosis and common sense gathered through life experience.
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LOVE this post, Sherie. So glad I found your blog (through Sherrie Koretke’s blog). This epiphany sounds like a wonderful way to start the new year. It’s so wonderful when we recognize resistance in our lives and minds and release it freely. What a wonderful gift to give to the world, too.
I know you will be a more effective coach and this will free even more compassion and love flow through you!
Cheers!
Steve, thank you so much for your wonderful comment! Yes, it was an absolutely incredible way to start the new year and I am so looking forward to seeing where this leads me! Thank you for coming over from Sherrie’s blog, I so appreciated your post over there!
Thank you for sharing! I relate so well as I too have recently realzed how some past events (specifically a professional “failure” 5 years ago, has affected my life and am now working though it. A work in progress, I am!
We all are a work in progress, Carl, and it does make life very, very interesting! Thank you for sharing that you are working through your past…I know you will be successful at that, because you already are…even if you haven’t realized it yet. Thank you for your comment, Carl, wishing you all the best on your journey. : D
Thanks for this Sherie. I can relate to an extent and have had many of my own epiphanies in the past few years. I am sure I will have more in the future as I truly look at my past and dig deeper. I really can’t wait for the feeling once I get through the memories of these events and truly bury them.
That is such a great feeling, isn’t it, Michael? Once we release the emotions behind the memories, the absolute feeling of joy that can come to us is amazing. I wish you a wonderful voyage of discovery into those memories that you used to have. . .letting go is a wonderful thing! Thanks so much for reading the post and for your comment, Michael…all the best to you!
What an inspiring article! Your epiphany really resonated with me, for recently I have discovered that as well. I appreciate you sharing from your heart, thank you. I know the New Year is going to be Amazing for you {hugs}
Susan, thank you so much! I am glad that you found my post inspiring and that it resonated with you! The New Year will be amazing for both of us, won’t it?? You are an Amazing lady and I appreciate your very kind words, thanks!
Sherie, thank you so much for sharing this tender experience here. It never ceases to amaze me how things can get buried in your subconscious mind. These kinds of revelations are life-changing.Excellent post!
Thank you for your kind words, Lisa. I am amazed too at what lies beneath in the subconscious mind and have seen very many transformations. It is wonderful when it happens to others and to ourselves!
Great post, Sherie. It is a wonderful story, indeed. Life is really about learning and taking and using what you’ve have learned to progress.
Yes, life is about learning and progression and that is what makes it so interesting! Thank you for your comment, Lorii!
A truly remarkable story. And you described it so well…I could feel your relief and freedom even as it was such a tough memory. In so many way I could relate to your epiphany. Accepting the TRUTH is always freeing!
Thank you, Elise! Yes, the truth will set you free, indeed! It was a tough memory and the relief was amazing. I can imagine that you have had your own epiphany (or more than one), since you have accomplished so much and come such a long way. I admire your journey and thank you for taking the time to read my post and to comment. : D
Thank you Sherie for sharing your epiphany. My first epiphany came when my mum died, I was only 7 years old… it changed my life forever… I think I wouldn’t ever be able to be the person as I am now. Through life experiences we have the opportunity to learn a lot and discover the truth behind the appearances. We will never get it done, and it is so exciting 🙂
Solvita, I can only imagine how that would change your life…you have become such an amazing person and I, for one (there are so many more), am very grateful for who you turned out to be! You are an inspiration! Yes, I love that we never get it done! : D Thank you for your comment, my dear!
Wow! Thanks for being so transparent and sharing your story with us all. It’s truly amazing the different adversities we encounter in life and the results from those adversities…you are one that is flourishing day by day..
Dr. Daisy, thank you! I believe that I am flourishing day by day! We all have our challenges and it is really cool to see how people do overcome them. I am grateful for you and for you taking the time to read my post and leave such a lovely comment. : D
Loved your story. You are so right. Realizing what is holding us back, being open and honest about it finally enables us to let it go. Suddenly we are farther ahead then we planned. 🙂
Terressa, thank you so much for reading it. Changes quite often are much more subtle than that and when it is a sudden and big change, it certainly makes one sit up and notice, LOL. I am happy that you took the time to leave me a comment, appreciate it!!
Sherie thanks for sharing something so personal, it is one of those count your blessings things aren’t worse kind of stories. Life is all about learning and always making progress, I know you will do well it was just a stubling block!
Life is all out learning and about making progress, isn’t it, Nancy? Everybody has something that they are working on and it helps us to understand each other better. Thank you for reading my post and for your kind comment!
Sherie,
It is interesting , what we carry from our childhood. Waiting for the other shoe to drop…I know that feeling and I have to say I don’y like it. No doubt, I carry it from so long ago event as well. My personal mission is to get past it, around it or through it and get rid if it once and for all.
Michele, that is a great personal mission to have. That feeling has gone for me now, and that makes me so glad!! You will get rid of it, of that I am sure!
Thanks for sharing yourself and this gem of a story. I am always touched by how adversity creates resilience and creativity. I am so glad to know you, Sherri!
Lorrie, I am so glad to know you, too! Adversity can definitely be a refiners’ fire! Thank you!
Thank you for sharing such a personal story and experience from your childhood.
You’re completely right. When we’ve done the work, we can have the most powerful experience of change and a sudden realization of truth that can change our lives FOREVER.
Edmund, thank you for reading the post and for taking the time to comment, I appreciate you! I am so grateful for the processes that our minds can take us through to provide us with change that lasts!
Wow, Sherie. Your article and past experience have left me breathless, as I understand those traumas so well. You are right; age had a lot to do with what you carried forward and how you carried it. Congratulations on your epiphany, and much success in the future.
Eva, thank you for your kind words. They mean a lot. When we make decisions as children, we are quite often unaware that they have been made. When they are brought to light, then we can make the change and sometimes, it happens in a flash of insight or epiphany, other times it is slow and gradual. It doesn’t really matter how it happens,as long it does; although an epiphany is a marvelous experience!
Sherie,
This is a great article. You’re exactly right, we’re not done, we’re all works in progress. Why are we able to experience powerful change? Because we do the work, and because we can…just like that!
Thank you, Rod, I appreciate that…and it is quite freeing to know that we are not done and that there can be powerful change! Thanks for reading the article and leaving such a well thought out comment! : D
Hi Sherie!
I’ve always been a bit suspicious of professionals who do not practise what they preach. You, on the other hand, clearly live your life using the skills of your profession…and it appears to have paid off for you. Congratulations.
LOL, yes, Rob, I certainly do. . .the stories that I could tell you. . .thank you!
Great article. It is the lies we tell ourselves that hold us back the most. I love how it made Epiphany applicable to our lives now. Like a Christmas present to yourself as warm and magnificent as the Magi and the child. 🙂
Mary, it is the lies that hold us back the most! I love how you liken epiphany to “a Christmas present to ourselves, as warm and magnificent as the Magi and the child”…thank you for that beautiful imagery, it gave me chills!