Lesson Learned - The Ripples

 

For the longest time, it was a given that you should always put others before yourself. You should take care of others. Family comes first, no matter what. For the longest time, I believed those words - I would always come second, third, or even way way in the back. I tried to help others and I noticed something - the more I helped others, the sicker I felt. The more I put everyone else before me, the more my anxiety would beat me down. I took in everyone else's problems and made them my own. Years later, after removing toxic elements from my life, I discovered myself. I sat in a chair in a room in a house in a place that I had ignored. I looked down and noticed that I had a teacup filled with tea in my hands. I took a sip of the tea, smiled, and then felt the warmth coursing through my body. I drank more of the tea and remained quiet. After so many years of taking care of others, I wanted to take of myself now. I set my teacup in my hands and noticed ripples in the tea. I got up from the chair, left the room, walked out of the house, and discovered that I was alive. I had a body, a mind, and a soul, yet I had no idea what to do next. I looked at the neverending ripples in the tea and thought - it's time I took care of my health. I quit bad habits, took up exercising, learned about meditation, and kept myself hydrated. From there came dusting off hobbies I gave up for various reasons and wondered about them. I wanted to learn more about tea, wanted to read and write more books, wanted to learn new recipes, and so on. From there came meeting people who were discovering the universe as well. I made new friends and reached out to old ones - the connection, I learned, never died but rather went inactive for a time. The more I spent time with myself, the more ripples I saw in my teacup, the more I became myself. I noticed also that my ripples reached out to others' ripples, causing a stir in their worlds that would bounce back to me. All of us with our teacups of various sizes and colours; all of us with our many ripples that began and ended with us. It all begins with you. When you start to take care of yourself, the ripples will come. Enjoy the ripples in your teacup.

Lesson learned.