“Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.” –Charles Swindoll

I believe in the order of things. I believe that random luck has no part in the way life unfolds and that each opportunity or challenge is here to offer us another chance to grow. I also believe lessons come back around to give us a chance to do it over and test our personal growth if we chose poorly the first time through. I actively work to cultivate imperturbability, a word another cancer sojourner used to describe his state of mind. It’s a powerful place to be. It means no matter what ‘caca’ is swirling through the air (and there is A LOT lately), you recognize that you are loved, guided and protected. I live in this state of being more and more every day, but there’s nothing like a lesson revisiting me to test my resolve.

That is exactly what happened yesterday. I even wrote about this exact scenario in my book of life lessons that will be published in 2016.

‘The Background’

I used to be a self-saboteur. Every time momentum would start moving me in the direction I wanted to go, I would mentally chicken out, start believing my ‘not good enough’ demons and the universe would find a way to undermine me at the 11th hour. The thing is, it wasn’t punishment, but my own energy and beliefs that were destroying my progress. In the past I used the example of my first Young Living Essential Oils gathering that I was excited and nervous about three years ago. Even though I know more about essential oils than anybody I know, I still lacked confidence! So what did the universe, aka Me, do? It gave me a lice issue with my kids which made me cancel my Young Living party. It was a horrible day filled with false itching, laundry and stress. How convenient.

‘The Caca’

Fast forward three years and here I stand with my first published book. Sales are going great and I am gearing up for an event on Saturday. Then I get a call from my sister informing me that my niece, and my daughter’s bestie, has lice. It has been going around her school. Before the judgments begin…and some people really love to judge, my sister lives in a very affluent Northern New Jersey suburb of New York City. The women at the lice salon told me that Hingham, a very affluent suburb of Boston, is the hotbed for lice on the south shore. Lice is not an issue of cleanliness.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, these two little cuties were inseparable. Normally, I put peppermint essential oil in my daughter’s hair every day before school as a deterrent. Over Thanksgiving weekend…I did not. Skip to the end, I spent yesterday afternoon at the lice salon, Close Nit Family, in Norwell out of precaution. I was clear. My daughter had 1 egg. Glad I went!

It wasn’t cheap. It took me away from work. It’s not something any of us want to deal with, but I realized last night that I was giving myself a little confidence test. As if ‘Okay Erin, three years ago you let this stop you. Are you going to use this as an excuse again, suggesting that life got in the way of your dreams or are you going to keep forging ahead? It was the ultimate ‘do over’ and I DID it. I breathed easily through the entire event. I felt grateful that I caught it so early that I stopped a potential outbreak in my community and I know now that I believe in myself, in what I do and in the messages I am sharing with the world. I successfully demonstrated my imperturbability and met some wonderful women providing a very useful service in my community in the process.

If you see patterns, if you notice that certain ‘unpleasantries’ keep resurfacing, it might just be your ‘do over’ calling to you. Think back to how you reacted the first time. Here is your chance to respond differently. Choose wisely.

Peace & self-love,
Erin