I grew up with parents who preached “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”  Perhaps somewhat good guidance to prevent mean spirited communication, but I took it to heart in a rather co-dependent, self muzzling kinda way. It has take many years, dare I say 5 decades to trust myself to speak with tact even if I am delivering a less than desirable message. Sometimes the conversation is between myself and another person and then there are occasions when the communcation is between myself and the Universe. Sunday was one such.

For those who didn’t see yesterday’s Bliss Blog entry, I spoke about a transcendent experience that occurred on Sunday when I joined 1699 kindred spirits on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum (Rocky’s stomping grounds:) for Yoga On The Steps For Living Beyond Breast Cancer.  What I didn’t share was what happened before I set my feet and tush on my purple Gaiam yoga mat that has served me well since 2004 and has been the magic carpet that has taken me on many a journey both inward and outward.  I left my Bucks County, PA home in what I figured was plenty of time to arrive for 8:30 a.m. registration. Smooth sailing all the way, including Kelly Drive which is generally filled with cars. I was enjoying the bright and beautiful early morning sunshine, arm out the window, doing what our family called “breezing”, with the childhood admonition from my Uncle Jim “Don’t stick your arm out too far, it might go home in another car.” One of the perks of adulthood is that you get to breeze if ya wanna.  As I approached the art museum, I saw a line of folks waiting to register, that stretched a good way down the block. I turned my head to seek a parking spot. The nearby lot was full, so I curved around the block, expecting that I would find an “Uncle Jimmy spot” right away.  The same uncle who warned about the perils mentioned above was also adept at finding the perfect parking spot and he bequeathed that gift to me long before his passing. This time, the parking powers weren’t as forthcoming.  I drove around a six block radius for 20 minutes or so, feeling increasingly frustrated, about to tumble into major meltdown. Here I was on my way to a yoga event, feeling all churned up inside. I had seen several people pull into vacating spots, literally right in front of me. This felt like a test of the emergency sanity system.

It was then that I allowed myself to be less than zen and used words that aren’t in my spiritual vocabularly and let fly with a few expletives framing the word, “I demand a parking spot NOW, please!”  (still managed a bit of politeness:) Whatya know?  I drove onto a street that parallels the museum and the perfect spot was waiting for me, it was free and directly across from my destination. Bonus was that the registration line was much shorter by the time I got there. I laughed with delight and relief, wondering if it was that final push that allowed the Celestial parking attendant to open a place for my Jeep. Being raised to be nice, I have a difficult time with people who are demanding and entitled and anger is not my favorite emotional state and yet, there are times when it is called for and making reasonable demands may get you what you are asking for. At least it works for parking spots.

http://youtu.be/DUDtFdnn9oQ The Car Song by Woodie Guthrie