[blockquote source=”Pema Chödrön”]“We base our lives on seeking happiness and avoiding suffering, but the best thing we can do for ourselves—and for the planet—is to turn this whole way of thinking upside down.”[/blockquote]

When I was a little girl, and had I the devastating misfortune of losing a balloon – I would think to myself, “That’s ok, the angels will take good care of it.”

My daughter, on the other hand, would cry terribly thinking that her balloon was afraid of heights.

Same balloon, metaphorically speaking – way different perspective.

I often refer to this metaphor in teaching – and in order to convey – that the power of transformation exists even amidst the greatest of ‘tragedies.’

And, losing one’s first balloon is most certainly a tragedy.

I suppose in my daughter’s mind, she was so attached to this idea of caring for the balloon -that the emotion in losing it was nearly too much to bare. In that instant her hand slipped from its string, she had already crafted a million ‘what if’ scenarios.

Most of which, were projections of her own little girl fears.

“What if it’s too high? Too cold? Too afraid?”

Or, perhaps more accurately, “How can I possibly care for that which has been lost?”

It’s a very sobering reality to lose control. We feel ourselves slipping into the rushing waters of every fear and/or insecurity we have ever known.

We cry our, we curse..we suffer our pains. Or, worse yet – “we crumble, or harden out of fear that more pain is coming.”

And often we feel so powerless to stop it.

But, according to American Buddhist nun, Pema Chödrön – we are never without the power to change;

“This is the very same moment when we could do something different. Right on the spot, through practice, we can get very familiar with the barriers that we put up around our hearts and around our whole being. We can become intimate with just how we hide out, doze off, freeze up. And that intimacy, coming to know these barriers so well, is what begins to dismantle them. Amazingly, when we give them our full attention they start to fall apart.”

And though, losing a balloon may seem a silly metaphor – even here, we may find the power of transformation: That which may be a tragedy in one moment, may be followed by comfort in the next.

The trick is learning to stay, even in those moments when we most want to get away. To stop the terrifying panic of ‘what ifs’ just long enough to see ‘what happens.’

Balloon update, 2014: I’m happy to report, that these days – my daughter and I look forward to seeing just how high our balloons might go.

Love and blessings on this most beautiful day, my friends. And may the blessings of this universe greet your every step.