EVERY PREOP'ER MUST READ................

I came across this poem on another profile and I loved it the moment I read it. Please read it. And just remember, this surgery is YOUR next trapeze bar. You can do this!!!!! Best Wishes to all. Carmella Transformation by Danaan Perry Sometimes I feel that my life is a series of trapeze swings. I'm either hanging on to a trapeze bar swinging along or, for a few moments in my life, I'm hurtling across space in between trapeze bars. Most of the time I spend my life hanging on for dear life to my trapeze-bar-of-the-moment. It carries me along at a certain steady rate of swing and I have the feeling that I'm in control of my life. I know most of the right questions and even some of the right answers. But once in a while as I'm merrily (or even not-so-merrily) swinging along, I look out ahead of me into the distance and what do I see? I see another trapeze bar swinging towards me it's empty and I know, in that place in me that knows that new trapeze bar has my name on it. It's my next step, my aliveness coming to get me. And in my heart of hearts, I know that for me to grow, I must release my grip on the present well-known bar to move on to the new one. Each time it happens to me I hope (no, I pray) that I won't have to let go of my old bar completely before I grab the new one. But in my knowing place I know that I must totally release my grasp on my old bar and, for some moment in time I must hurtle across space before I can grab onto the new bar. Each time I'm filled with terror. It doesn't matter that in all my previous hurtles across the void of unknowing I have always made it. I am each time afraid I will miss, that I will be crushed on unseen rocks in the bottomless chasm between the bars. I do it anyway. Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics call the faith experience. No guarantees, no net, no insurance policy, But I do it anyway because somehow to keep hanging on to that old bar is no longer on the list of alternatives. So, for an eternity that can last a microsecond, or a thousand lifetimes, I soar across the dark void of "The past is gone, the future is not yet here". It's called "transition". I have come to believe that this is the only place that real change occurs. I mean real change, not the pseudo change that only lasts until the next time my old buttons get punched. I have noticed that in our culture, this transition zone is looked upon as a "No-thing", A no place between places. Sure the old trapeze bar was real, and the new one coming towards me, I hope that's real too But the void between? Is that just a scary, confusing, disorienting, nowhere that must be gotten through As fast and as unconsciously as possible? NO! What a wasted opportunity that would be. I have a sneaking suspicion that the transition zone is the only real thing and the bars are illusions that we dream up to avoid where the real change, the real growth occurs for us. Whether or not my hunch is true, it remains that The transition zones in our lives are incredibly rich places. They should be honored, even savored. Yes, with all the pain and fear and feelings of being out of control that can (but not necessarily) accompany transitions, they are still the most alive, most growth-filled, passionate, expansive moments of our lives. So, transformation of fear may have nothing to do with making fear go away but rather with giving ourselves permission to "hang out" in the transition between trapezes. Transforming our need to grab that new bar, any bar, is allowing ourselves to dwell in the only place where change really happens. It can be terrifying it can also be enlightening, in the true sense of the word. Hurtling through the void we just may learn how to fly.