The Healthy Cookie

The new year often makes us reflect on the past year and look ahead to all the possibility that the future will bring. Last year, I wrote about my Resolution Free ‘07, with a vague idea of what the year would hold. This year I have this optimistic feeling of freedom and in that freedom, I do believe that anything is possible.

Lately, things keep happening that I have been waiting for, or perhaps working towards that are proving to me that anything is possible. All it takes to make seemingly impossible things happen is a little positive thinking, perhaps some hard work, and more than anything, patience that it will all come about when the time is right.

I recently wrote about finishing school and having no idea what the future might hold. What I never mentioned, was that in a little under two weeks time, I will be jetting off to St. Lucia to intern at one of the world’s premier destination spa resorts, Le Sport. This is not just any spa, this is the very place I have been picturing myself working at since 2004.

The story goes like this. On my 25th birthday, my mother took me to this resort. On this vacation, I spoke to my mom about how miserable I was at my job in advertising, how much I hated it and how I had to figure out a way that I could work at a place like this. While at LeSport, I met this practitioner who suggested that with my high energy and calming aura (yes- he said ‘calming aura’) that I should think about training to be a life coach. My response at the time was something along the lines of “as if”. How could I be a life coach when my life was a mess?

Fast forward 10 months and I had just returned from a summer in London, again wondering what to do with my life. I was at a party when I met this guy who, after talking for a brief time, suggested I become a nutritionist. “What? Me? No… I’m in fashion”, I told him.

I am sure I have had dozens of conversations with people that went in one ear and out the other. The conversations I had with these two random guys, however, I remembered for a reason. They were like little fortune tellers that I failed to recognize as such.

At the time, I had no idea, on a conscious level at least, that what they said had any value in my life. I certainly had no idea that I would experience the last three years in the way that I did or that I would now be spending my days sewing up a white wardrobe in order to adhere to the white/cream dress code of this spa that I once expressed a desire to work at. Anything is possible.

Today I trekked over to the Apple Store to have my computer looked at. The walk to get there took me a little over an hour and while I was waiting, I found myself looking around wondering how these people could work here all day surrounded by such high levels of electromganetic frequency (EMF) radiation. As I am thinking this, I noticed myself getting into a bit of a lunging position to stretch my legs from the long walk. Then I noticed that I had gone out in public in track pants, running shoes and a puffy vest. I am in the Apple store, worrying about EMFs, lunging and stretching while wearing sweat pants. Sometimes I don’t recognize myself. I may have a fashion degree but I am a nutritionist and anything is surely possible.

I then found myself doing something else I swore I would never do- buying ‘nude’ coloured panties. I needed something appropriate for underneath all the white clothes I will be wearing while working at one of the world’s top spas. Beige underwear is a sacrifice I can manage and I think I have finally learned to never say never.

With this fresh and shiny year starting off by my doing something that I never thought would happen, my going to work at LeSport (and wearing beige underwear), I can’t help but feel that this is a year of possibility. It is a great feeling. Given what I experienced in the last couple of years that has brought me to where I am today, I have every confidence that it is all happening exactly as it is supposed to. I am where I am supposed to be right now and I will be exactly where I am supposed to be tomorrow. One year or five or ten years from now- I know that I will be in the right place then too.

Whenever we try and control the big things in our lives, it seems to lead to more chaos, more suffering and more dissatisfaction with where we are. If we are able to train ourselves to give up a little of that control, to let ourselves be open to what is presented to us, then our lives will be that much easier to navigate. This does not mean that we shouldn’t have worries or shouldn’t work hard to achieve our goals. It only means that we mustn’t miss out on what is happening in the moment and that we must be certain and confident that what we are feeling, and thinking, and seeing in the moment is exactly right. We can feel sadness or anger in the rough spots and feel joy in the goodness. Mostly however, we must be patient with the process as anything is possible. We just have to be open to letting it happen.

Happy fresh and shiny new year. 2008 is going to be great!
Health, happiness and love all around.