***What Are Your Jellyfish?

We’re spending this week with a friend, sailing the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest. We’ve never been here before and the scenery is stunningly beautiful. My husband and I are enjoying a great week. One of our intentions for this week was to do some brainstorming for InspireMeToday.com, but very little of that has happened so far.

Just before I left to come up here I was interviewing one of our Inspirational Luminaries. I asked them to discuss change and how that can affect our lives. This Luminary shared that one thing they’ve learned is that if you have problems because of your beliefs, you tend to take those problems with you- whether it’s moving to a new city or into a new relationship- until you change the attitude that created them. If you don’t make the change on the inside, they’ll keep showing up on the outside.

I thought about that when we got up here to the San Juans. Well, it seems the islands here are plagued with jellyfish. We thought the only jellyfish we’d have to worry about were in warm water. The water temperature here is barely above 50 degrees, so my theory that they love warm water is obviously incorrect. And I thought there were a lot of jellyfish in the Caribbean, but there are more here than I’ve ever seen. They are shimmery white and about the size of a small plate. It looks like God just emptied his china closet into the ocean. They are covering the area, not more than a foot apart from one another.

So, what is it with jellyfish? What are they here to teach me? I believe we notice different things in our life for a reason. Lately it seems mine are jellyfish.

Instead of having a productive time brainstorming InspireMeToday.com, it seems we’ve spent most of our time dealing with what I call “the yucky stuff of life” that has to be handled. In our case it’s two rental properties in Las Vegas that are upside down- meaning more expenses than income. Thinking about stuff like this is like imagining myself swimming through jellyfish- yuck. But we all have yucky stuff. I keep telling myself to just get over it.

It’s not important whether or not we have yucky stuff in our life, it’s important how we deal with it and how we allow it to affect our day. Instead of being afraid of these jellyfish I’m noticing their incredible beauty. I’m certain these jellyfish are an important part of the web of life or they wouldn’t be here. And in that realization, I know that MY yucky stuff is also a part of my web. It has a purpose in my life or it too wouldn’t be here. From every situation we can find the beauty.

Yesterday, as I realized my next blog was about jellyfish, Darryl found the largest and most beautiful jellyfish I’ve ever seen. It was almost 2 feet in diameter and looked just like a giant flower- deep orange with what appeared to be petals. We were moored at a dock as it went swimming past us very slowly. We were both mesmerized by the sheer beauty of this creature. I’ve never seen anything like it. (Check out the photo).

I tend to take things in all day and process them at night. Around 2am last night, I woke up and wrote this in my journal- “Vegas is a jellyfish”. I realized the upside down properties are nothing to be afraid of, for in that situation, there too is beauty. They are my personal giant flower jellyfish. If I can find a way to turn my perception from being frightened of them or avoiding them, then I can find the beauty in the situation. With that realization came a great peace. I don’t have to be afraid of the situation. I know that it too has a purpose and even if I don’t know what it is, I’ll find the beauty in the situation if I look closely.

What are the jellyfish in your life? I’m off to go find more jellyfish today and see what I can learn from them. I’ll keep you posted