Anybody else thinking, "What a week?! What a two weeks!? What a month?!"
Me too. :)
I have seen a lot of nasty weather in my time, but I don't believe I have ever seen anything like the last two weeks. Even this Pollyanna hit the wall Sunday and cried mercy; I needed sunshine in the worst way. Then just as you believed the weather was going to break towards the long lost sunshine, all of our alerts started going off with the news that Osama bin Laden had been shot and killed. I had a lot of mixed emotions, but none more than stunned amazement.
Just like everyone else I know, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on 9/11. I made changes in my own life after that day...it was a wake up call for me in a lot of ways. Everything in my life changed, but none more than the industry (finance) that I work in every day. This past Sunday night, I went to bed right after the announcement and before all of the "reaction" started. The following morning I was touched and blown away by the enormous outpouring of celebration and relief that I saw in the pictures from the previous night. I really felt like everyone had exhaled for the first time in nearly a decade. Had we known we were all holding our breath? Had I known?
This got me to thinking of all of the "traumatic" and moving events we all live through on a large scale and a very intimate scale throughout our lives. Do we ever really give ourselves enough time to heal? Do we ever really grieve the loss(es) in our life?
After my presentation last week, I had a wonderful woman come up to me and ask me about how to find her passion again when she could no longer do any of her old passions due to an illness. I was so moved by her question, but I was more moved that she had the courage to ask the question to begin with...how many of us never have the guts to even ASK the question...much less work to discover the answer?? After praying to God in my heart for the right words, I advised her that first she needed to grieve all of the things she could no longer do...grieve and grieve and grieve. Then, and only then, would she be able to fully see ALL of the things she could still do...a huge pool of new potential passions. Sometimes I think the things we can't do consume us so much that we are blind to all of the things we CAN do.
This isn't just in our passions...it is in weather, tragedies, conflicts with family members, our jobs and on and on. Ask yourself...is something you can't do keeping you from all that you can do? Is someone you can't deal with keeping you from people that you love? Are you keeping yourself from forgiving because you need the crutch...the excuse? Are you not grieving the loss of something you can no longer do because you are scared to try the buffet of things you can still do?
Are you simply...afraid?
I hope that you will take a step of faith and think upon all of the things you CAN do and let go of the things you cannot do. I am always glad when I take steps in faith and spread my wings. I am ashamed to say this, but I am always surprised when God is there. On an additional note, he is there both when I crash and when I soar. :)
...as the fabulous Rosanne Cash song goes,"...God is in the roses and the thorns...", and I am so grateful.
Go ahead...grieve...moving on is just on the other side...:)
Sunshine Dreams to You ~ Today and Every Day! :)
