Do you have expiration date on your E X P A N S I O N?

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My dentist peered into my open mouth,

“We’ll have to take the bonding off your tooth if we want to
do Invisalign.”

Here’s what I heard:

I ‘ll have to look like a hillbilly, missing a tooth for 9
months, while we expand your jaw and make room for that recessed tooth to join
the crowd.  

Vanity smacked me in the face with the sting of a volleyball.

Over 20 years ago, I bonded this tooth. Did it look perfect?
No, It was still crossed, but at least
it didn’t look like it was missing.

I am 60 and ½ years old contemplating braces.

Braces flash images of awkward kids with mouths full of
metal.

But expansion…..  

Ahhhh the thought of expanding, moving beyond where I am, opening
to unknown territories – Now that gets me pumped.

Now the only question is: 

What do I have to let go of or embrace 

in order to E X P A N D?

 

Hell, I made a whole human being in 9 months.  Braces?
Piece of cake.

“Off with the bonding” I say channeling the Queen of Hearts.

Whirr, whirr ,drill, spit spray. “Ok let’s take a look.” I
winced.

There it was my naked tooth. Crossed and recessed, but seriously
not a big deal.

Over the years I’d created a belief so much bigger and
distorted than reality.

As if my thought of looking like hillbilly were as true as
the principle of gravity.

Hmmm, note to self, question my beliefs, my alleged truths.

How often do we elevate our BELIEFS to the status of LAWS
and PRINCIPLES allowing that to limit us?

What would or could you do, if you only believed you could?

 

Forty years ago, my mother, high school graduate, decided
she wanted to go to college.

Her friends scoffed,

“Iris, you’re turning
55, why would you want to do that?”

“I’ll be 55 anyway, I might as well have a degree.”  

Mom died nine years later with a Master’s degree in social
work.

She put no expiration date on her ability to expand.

As I write this blog, my Invisalign trays are being crafted.

Over the next nine months I ‘ll be expanding from the inside
out:

From dental to mental.

How about you?  

What and how will you  E
X  P  A
N  D   in the
next 9 months?