Jolt: To Disturb Suddenly and Severely; Stun

We've all witnessed or even experienced serious events that shift our perspective, or offer lessons to us, as we move forward in our daily living: death of a loved one, job loss, divorce, ill-health of a loved one or ourselves, etc.  

Of course, when we are the ones actually in the "moment" of the event, the perspective shift, or lesson, usually doesn't come until much later. But for those of us that may be witnessing a friend, parishioner, community member or neighbor experience the loss or event, it offers the perspective shift more immediately because we ourselves are not going through the direct "rawness" and grief of the experience. For us witnesses, these events still act like a "jolt" to our system. 

The jolts help us to reflect on our own lives, to shift our perspective.

Recently, a mom at my daughter's school passed away, or as I like to believe, transitioned, rather suddenly and unexpectedly. I don't know her or her family. But I know and can relate to the rawness, the grief, the experience. We all can, in some way or another. I've been jolted.

A jolt like this one usually forces me to reflect upon how I am living my own life, to put things I've been dealing with in perspective, to shift:

• am I really present when I'm with my kids...
• I  should attend field day/field trip/class party/baseball game, because who knows when or if I will get this opportunity to do it again...
• I've been stressing about my career, my messy, disorganized house and dirty laundry—why am I allowing these minor stressors to cloud the big picture, when a child has just lost his mother, a husband has lost his wife?

In addition, the latest jolt has caused me to reflect on why the perspective shift, or lesson, does not stay with me for longer periods of time. Why is it that I have experienced this jolt and subsequent shift, but yet I know, I will go back to worrying about the dirty house or my flat tire, as if, that was the most terrible thing or the most important thing around?  

Will I allow the big picture to become clouded again until the next jolt?  

Perhaps that is the lesson that I am to take away from this latest event.  I can be sure, that the events and jolts are still going to happen, both indirectly and directly. But perhaps, I can work on sustaining the shift perspective in my daily living for a longer time—so that the next jolt is not so disturbing.