Find Yourself, Says this World

.....but I don’t think that’s really the way it works.

Finding yourself sounds like “you” are out there that knowing who you are is a process of going. Yet it seems in so many ways that it’s really more about staying. Staying true to who you are…even when others don't agree with your decisions. Staying courageous enough to say “yes” to what God asks…even if you’re scared. Staying open to life and love…even when hard times make you want to slam the door of your heart.

It’s the staying that makes us.

And it’s the staying that leads, in the end, to the finding. The knowing. Who we are. What we’re called to do. To looking in the mirror and seeing a woman who is learning to be who she is smiling back–at least on more days than not. We don’t have to find ourselves, we simply have to come home to who we already are…

and i'm learning this more and more every day.

Oh, The Wonder Years

Most of us grew up watching The Wonder Years and if you were like me you would sink into its stories, its people and places and odd quirks....To me it wasn't television, it was literature. It was poetry. 

"It was the first kiss for both of us. We never really talked about it afterward, but I think about the events of that day again and again, and somehow I know that Winnie does too. Whenever some blowhard starts talking about the anonymity of the suburbs, or the mindlessness of the TV generation. Because we know that inside each one of those identical boxes, with its Dodge parked out front, and its white bread on the table, and its TV set glowing blue in the falling dusk, there were people with stories. There were families bound together in the pain and the struggle of love. There were moments that made us cry with laughter. And there were moments, like that one, of sorrow and wonder."   

When I watch this show today I tend to tear up...maybe it’s familiarity. Maybe it’s the ‘pain and the struggle of love’ that hits me right in the gut, the sorrow and the wonder of life translated onto my t.v. screen. The recollection of something distant and familiar.

After all, if growing up is war, then the friends who grew up with you deserve a special respect. The ones who stuck by you shoulder to shoulder, in a time when nothing was certain, all life lay ahead, and every road led home. ~Kevin Arnold

Sometimes to keep growing together, you have to grow apart. If you're lucky you can get a second chance with the one you love. Sometimes luck isn't enough. Love can kill you..It can tear you apart. But it can bring you back together.

Change is never easy. You fight to hold on. You fight to let go

They say hindsight is 20/20, and I guess that's true; because standing there that night everything became so clear. 

 When you're a little kid you're a bit of everything; Scientist, Philosopher, Artist. Sometimes it seems like growing up is giving these things up one at a time. One by one.  I guess we all have one thing we regret giving up.  One thing we really miss.  That we gave up because we were too lazy or, we couldn't stick it out or, because we were afraid. 

 There was a time when the world was enormous: spanning the vast, almost infinite boundaries of your neighborhood. The place where you grew up, where you didn’t think twice about playing on someone else’s lawn. The street was your territory that occasionally got invaded by a passing car. It was where you didn’t get called home until after it was dark. And all the people, and all the houses that surrounded you were as familiar as the things in your own room.

 And I'm telling you, everybody gets to at least second base by the seventh grade... This was a lot of pressure!  Especially since most of the girls we knew had no second bases!

When my father had a bad day at work, he'd just sit in the dark by himself and watch T.V. We learned early on that this was a danger signal and we adapted our behavior accordingly.

Sometimes all on you can do is  close your eyes and wish that the slow song will never end.

There are very few things in life as purely terrifying as calling a  girl on the telephone. Especially a really cute girl.

 There are times in life when you think you’re lost. When every turn you take seems wrong. Every day is the same..heading no where. Then just for a moment, you see a light. And so I began that long climb into the light. Only this time I wasn't alone.

Over the course of the average lifetime you meet a lot of people. Some of them 

stick with you through thick and thin. Some weave their way through your life and disappear forever. But once in a while someone comes along who earns a 

permanent place in your heart.

I don't know what it was about The Wonder Years...the innocence of it all or maybe the reality. But I do know this show, above all others has and always will have a place in my heart. And this song ALWAYS makes me smile....