Distractable Me

Distractible Me

I don’t officially have ADD, but I do have a difficult time remaining on task and staying focused when I’m working on the physical plane.  I have to admit, I get frustrated with myself when something catches my eye and I lose my concentration.   As a matter of fact, while in the process of writing this blog, my cat jumped in my lap which of course distracted me and I stopped what I was doing to pet and play with him.  I had to laugh at the irony when I finally got back to writing.

Where am I going with this?  Well, let me tell you about yesterday.  My friend was driving me to work and we were talking about the all the stuff I have going on in my life right now.  There seems to be a lot of chaos and the energy around me feels heavy.  We were discussing the practical versus the spiritual and I do have to admit, I was feeling frustrated and sad.  As I was in the middle of lamenting on yet another thing going wrong that I can’t seem to understand the message in, I got distracted.  There was a man riding an old fashioned bike.  The kind with the big front wheel and tiny back wheel.  My whole conversation shifted to “oh, check that out!  That’s totally cool!  How does he stay on it when he needs to stop at a traffic light?”  You get the point.  There was a similar situation earlier that day when we were having coffee outside.  I was talking about how my heart is breaking for my older son.  He’s the one with autism and he’s going through some hard times.  Teenage angst and autism do not mix.  Anyway, I was practically in tears when I stopped midsentence  and exclaimed “Oh, look at the pretty butterfly!”  A beautiful yellow tail swallowtail butterfly flew right past us, swirling around taking it’s time before moving on.  I totally forgot what I was saying and we moved onto something else.

The bike incident hard on the heels of the butterfly made me realize something.   The fact that I’m easily distracted while inconvenient at times is not always such a bad thing.  I love spending time with my cat, and if he hadn’t jumped on me this morning, I probably wouldn’t have sat down to spend quality time with him until the end of the day.  Seeing the bike was magical to me.  It sparked my childish curiosity and imagination.  The butterfly, well, they are simply beautiful creatures and I feel blessed that this particular one honored us by spending a few moments by our table.  If I was super-hyper focused in those moments, I would have missed all these wonderful experiences.

So what’s the moral of this story?  Well, we all have aspects of ourselves that we’d like to improve.  However, even these seemingly negative aspects have a positive side.  I always talk about embracing and loving our entire being, but I know it’s not always easy.  Today, I have found a way to love and embrace my distractibility.  I’ve been given the gift, of seeing the gift in this trait and for that I am exceedingly grateful.

The next time you get frustrated because of a seemingly less than desirable of yours, ask the Universe to show you how it actually benefits you.  You may still feel that you need to let this trait go, but at least you won’t view it and in a sense yourself so negatively.