A little bit of comfort.

A Little Bit of Comfort.

Now and again I feel that to leave your comfort zone can be good for you. It is such a simple thing to stay where you never feel tested or taxed. In the past year, I have more and more painting on my IPad, it has been a long slow learning curve and often very difficult.

Then on the other side, it seems that if a painting is digital it is not real! That makes me often wonder if I should just stay where I know I can produce art that others like and no questions.

This of course was all playing through my mind when I walked yesterday. it is a very interesting concept the idea of being in a comfort zone. Offering comfort to another. Feeling comfortable in the company of a friend knowing that no matter what this person will never make you feel uncomfortable. Then there is the idea of making others uncomfortable.

Is there ever a time when it is correct to challenge a person even although the challenge makes them feel uncomfortable.

It is an idea with so many connotations. I am moved by the idea of being a comfort to another. The Tao Te Ching, which as most by now know I am spending much time studying and learning from. The smallest book I have ever spent so much time studying.

One of the lessons I have learned is that by going with the flow of life so much stress can be taken from our lives. We need not fret about that which we have no control over and it is foolish to worry about what the morrow might bring. Again we have no real control over the future, in spite of what others might say.

Having found this comfort, this zone of peace is it possible to share it with others? Searching the memory banks of tales and lessons taught and learned I came up with just a few marvellous notions about the sensation of comfort.

Once during Queen Victoria's reign, she heard that the wife of a labourer in her service had lost her baby. Having experienced deep sorrow herself, she felt moved to express her sympathy. 

So she called on the bereaved woman one day and spent some time with her. My thought at this point was that she might have made the effort to go to her rather than call her to her presence. 

After she left, the neighbours asked what the queen had said. "Nothing," replied the grieving mother. "She simply put her hands on mine, and we silently wept together."

As I thought of this I remembered a very similar and very true account. 

A little girl came home one day from her best friends house. Her best friend had died. "Why did you go?" her father asked her on her return. 

"To comfort her mother," said the child. "What could you do to comfort her?" 

"I climbed into her lap and cried with her." To understand and share empathy with another often requires no words.

I conclude with another thought and account.

Douglas Maurer, a young lad of 15 had been feeling bad for several days. His temperature was ranging between 103 and 105 degrees, and he was suffering from severe flu-like symptoms. Finally, his mother took him to the doctor who in turn sent him to the hospital. 

Douglas was diagnosed as having leukaemia. The doctors told him in frank terms about his disease.

They said that for the next three years, he would have to undergo chemotherapy. They didn't sugarcoat the side effects. They told Douglas he would go bald and that his body would most likely bloat. Upon learning this, he went into a deep depression. 

His aunt called a floral shop to send Douglas an arrangement of flowers. She told the florist that it was for her teenage nephew who has leukaemia. When the flowers arrived at the hospital, they were beautiful. Douglas read the card from his aunt. 

Then he saw a second card. It said: "Douglas, I took your order. I work at the florist. 

I had leukaemia when I was 7 years old. I'm 22 years old now. Good luck. My heart goes out to you. Sincerely, Laura Bradley." 

His face lit up. He said, "Oh!" 

Douglas was in a hospital filled with millions of pounds of the most sophisticated medical equipment. He was being treated by expert doctors and nurses with medical training totalling in the hundreds of years. But it was a salesclerk in a flower shop, a woman making very little a week, who, by taking the time to care, and by being willing to go with what her heart told her to do, gave Douglas hope and the will to carry on. Like her, he has survived and is always ready to give a word of encouragement to others.

An amazing word with so many emotions attached to it. Comfort. have a day filled with it and maybe even a little challenge of being out of your comfort zone. In all though, go with the flow.