When you are working towards a "balanced" life, one of the hardest things to realize is that everything matters.
What do I mean by that?
Well, if you are anything like me, you take joy in the little victories of finding and having a balanced life...I left work at a reasonable hour....I made time for my friends....I called special people in my life and had a long phone conversation....I wrote some thank you notes today, etc....
What I am learning...*Sigh*...Does. It. Ever. End.?...is that real transformation comes when you immerse yourself in these joys, and create a life full of victories...not a spotty, bread-crumb trail.
*Sigh*
"If you want something different, you gotta do something different." ~ Nathaniel Williams
I don't believe Nathaniel Williams was referring to doing just a few things different. :) I have made a lot of progress, and that is worth celebrating....but I have 'miles to go before I sleep' in my life to truly re-calibrate my life into once again, so that I have true balance. I found it once...a few years back...and I was naive to believe it would be "easy" to bounce back quickly after losing my way. Just like it is harder for your body to bounce back as you get older...there is no "bouncing back quickly" for balance either...I love getting older, but I hate that part...truly hate it.
THIS is just another reason why we should teach our children young to have and live balanced lives. It is a habit that needs to be cultivated and nurtured...because it is harder and harder to snap back the older they get....and even harder for them to learn new if they were never taught the skills...not impossible, but difficult. I am living proof of that struggle, but also of that hope.
The funny thing about me referencing teaching children this skill, is that it is children who have taught me the most lessons about love and balance...and none more than the students I have met through the scholarship programs at Fayetteville. These kids...young adults :)...inspire me and remind me and teach me....Every. Day. I left Fayetteville this past weekend knowing that some things had to change...immediately....in my own life. I recognized that I had made excuses about some things...and that the execuses need to stop...Immediately.
"When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them." ~ Martin Buber
Where you invest your love, you invest your life. Truth. A bunch of Camp Caudle kids got me completely addicted to Mumford and Sons...more lessons. The next lesson for me in just that one song is that it is where I invest my love...Every. Day. and All. The. Time. Not just a moment, or a day, or for a season....but where I invest every moment of my life. I don't want to live an "okay "life or a semi-balanced life or an "it will do" life...I want to live a truly balanced life.
I have some more work to do...and miles to go before I sleep...:)))
“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'
'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.
'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'
'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' ...he asked, 'or bit by bit?'
'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.” ~ Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
I'm still learning. I'm stll tearing down walls. I'm still growing...up. ;) I'm not done yet...but I am getting better...a little, Every.Day. :)))
Sunshine Dreams to You ~ Today and Every Day! :)
