Life Shifts

Have you ever felt like your life is a tv show or movie (i.e. The Matrix, The Truman Show, many episodes of Star Trek whatever generation, the 4400, etc) where they steal your consciousness and you think you are living your life, but it's really all made up? Usually something will betray the illusion with some sort of clue and you (or the character) eventually find your way back to your reality which would be something like laying in some medical lounge chair with wires and electrodes hooked up to you with a bunch of doctors and scientists huddled around taking notes. No? Well, given the large amount of books, movies and tv shows that deal with these experiences, I think there's something universal about it. Okay...so the point here is that as a result of some life changing experience (good or bad), your world and all future experiences are now significantly changed or seen in a different way. The "looking glass" through which you see the world has been permanently altered. These are the times in life that I love AND I hate. We get lulled into a false sense of security (usually when it's a bad thing that happens) or complacency (when it's time for change and you know it but haven't been able to do anything until it is pushed upon you). It's about change...and the challenge of that change is to use it for growth. It is not usually something you are aware of as the chain of events are happening. Only in retrospect is this seen. But more like an unexpected volcanic explosion forever changing your personal landscape. Maybe it's the death of a parent, discovering you have cancer, a divorce, surviving an experience that challenged to you to go beyond your previously thought limits or the birth of a child. Perhaps it is a major injury. How we can wish it hadn't happened...but eventually accept that it has. So do the work, do the recovery...make the adjustments and use it to grow and move forward. I tore my ACL in 2002 about a month before going to Brazil to compete in the Mundials. The doctor said I couldn't train and certainly I couldn't compete. Well, I had been training and argued with him until he acquiesed and said I could go. I had surgery schedule for the day after I returned. Then I received a call for a freelance job that would start the day after I was supposed to get off of crutches. Well, that was perfect! I needed to make some money and I wasn't going to be able to set foot on a mat for at least 3 months which was, coincidentally, the length of the job, and sitting at a desk on a computer was pretty much the only thing I was going to be able to do. On top of that, the building where the job was had a gym equipped with exactly what I needed for my rehab! Of course, I wish I hadn't torn my ACL in the first place but it did change my jiu-jitsu and made me reconsider a lot of movements I had taken for granted. By the way, has anyone ever seen "Wintuition" on the Game Show Network (GSN)?