I talk about a lot of things on this blog, but I try not to talk about things that are too personal.
This past year has been one big change after another, and as hard as it sometimes was, I tried to keep focused on the fact that “this too shall pass.” I’m not completely there yet, but I’m much much closer.
Over the weekend I did something that closed the door on a long chapter of my life. I always note when things come full circle, and this truly did. (Sorry for being vague, but I don’t want to get into it publicly. Just trust it’s good.) Five minutes after this realization, I came across this magnet:
It’s not often I find a quote that fits a stage in my life at the EXACT MOMENT it’s happening.
Has this ever happened to you?
All the time.
Here’s just one. Many years ago, I was working in a restaurant, which got unexpectedly busy, and I was run off my feet. My last customer for the night left me a poem which began…
For every departure, there is an arrival.
It’s the law of the axe, whose handle was a tree.
It ended with a line about the light from a star traveling billions of miles, just to comfort us now.
Not 30 seconds after I read it, I received the phone call telling me my father had died.
Wow, that gave me the chills.
When I made my first “big” move to another state as young married mom and for the first time had no old friends or family around me — I was looking at cards in a Hallmark store and saw a Mary Engelbreit card with “Bloom Where You’re Planted.” I bought it – and It has been my mantra ever since. Good thing too, since there were 5 interstate moves in the next 10 years.
Amy, I like that. Kind of goes with Home is Where the Heart Is, but I like that much better.
🙂
Yep, where I saw that quote I took it as a directive more than a nice saying. Kind of goes right before “Just Do It.”
And I believe I have.
I do think you have too. 🙂
🙂
Back in HS after attending a college fair, I threw out 99% of the applications & pamphlets I was given. A week later I got a personal letter mailed to me by a college rep who was so impressed from speaking with me that she felt compelled to write & asked me to apply. I had thrown out the application and ended up printing it out on recycled printer paper and it was a form on their website that looked like a typewriter had made it (not a PDF). It looked like crap.
Fast forward 2 months, I was told to come visit. The minute I stepped out of the car and saw the campus I knew that’s where I needed to be. Since then, over 10 years later, my circle of friends that I met there have become the family I didn’t know I had or needed.
Aaron, I’ve often pondered how different my life would be had I gone to the college I originally wanted to attend. It’s crazy how much one decision truly affects the rest of your life. I’m glad you made the right one.
I’m still trying to figure out how the world became a butterfly…
When I retired from the Air Force, I had this feeling. That’s a transformative life change (having done that for 22 years). However, what you don’t realize, in many ways, is what’s lifted from your shoulders when you make a transformation like that. There are new challenges, but they are not the old challenges, so tackling them becomes more adventure than rut. To that end, I’ve more and more become a big believer in action, even with the little things. That is, DOING something rather than sitting and rhumenating on somethings. I find that one action leads to another leads to another. And in each, the thing that was a caterpillar changes and becomes a butterfly. Some weeks, I get a whole field full of them. Corny, but true.
I definitely felt the past lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t expect it to be such a physical reaction, but it was. I agree with you 100% on taking action. So much of my time in Mexico was spent waiting that I’m determined not to do that anymore. I put it in my head that I can make things happen for myself, and they finally seem to be.
You are awesomesauce with a cherry on top. You are strong. You are a great friend to people you’ve never even met. Transformation is a part of us every day. You’re probably better at it than you think. Actually, I think you seem to realize this now.
I love quotes like the one you found. And I am a firm believer in signs that let you know you are doing the right thing.
My favorite: my first day subbing. I was nervous and just wanted to get through the day without screwing up. One of the kids, who had been giving me trouble most of the day (and I ended up talking to him on the playground: he owed me time) left at the end and turned before walking out, “You’re a pretty cool teacher.”
Yeah, that made my day.
Aww, Mel, thanks. And I really want to meet the mule one of these days. 😛
That’s so wonderful that student said that to you. People often have no way of knowing how much a small word of kindness can affect others, which is why I try to make it a point to do that. This doesn’t completely compare, but say, for example, that I really like a stranger’s dress, I’ll tell her. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like getting compliments. 🙂
And I believe that you’re a pretty cool teacher.
I trust you. Glad good things are rolling in. I’d give you a hug, but my arms are a little too short.
You and you silly short arms.
Thanks.
This happens to me frequently, especially of late, and I fully believe in the power of such timely messages. They are meant to be, right then, when we most need them.
Very cool.
Thinking of you!
Thanks Janna. 🙂
“Some days it’s not worth gnawing through the leather straps.”
Emo Phillips
Adam
I can see how that’d be appropriate for you. 😛
Glad things are looking up and loose ends are getting tied. (hugs)
Thanks!