Wednesday, February 15, 2012

we come with beautiful secrets

We come with beautiful secrets.  The carefully chosen title of my blog.
It came from a piece of a quote....

We come with beautiful secrets

We come with purposes written on our hearts, written on our souls.

We come to every new morning

With possibilities only we can hold

Redemption comes from strange places, small spaces

Calling out the best of who we are

I want to add to the beauty

To tell a better story........

*I do not know the author


This week I've been pondering that again. Big things, tragic things, extraordinary things, devastating things happen to each of us, many of which go unknown to most the people in our lives. Do you ever wonder what is happening in your coworker's/neighbors/friend's life that they feel they can't share?  I guarantee something is there. Something is there, if someone would ask.

Do we all have secrets? If we all have secrets, why do we pretend we don't? Would it be so bad to say hey this is who I am. This is where I have been. This makes me...me. Why do we carry so much alone. Am I the only one who has secrets? Am the only one who has a story. Surely not. It may not be a story worth money. It is not a story all that unique from someone elses. But it is mine. My story. Why do we think we are the only ones with "secrets?"

It all comes together. Who we are. Why we are where we are. The secrets that make me...me.  Those impactful moments that made you, you.

So then I look around at others........friends, family, coworkers. As we laugh, as we cry, as we chat, as we share, I wonder. I wonder more today than I did yesterday. What secrets do you have? What do you carry alone? Why is it so hard to completely open my heart and soul to the world? Why do I hold back? Why do we as people? If I shared mine, would you?

The true secret in all this is not mine. The secret is what could I really offer this world, what could I give to all of you if I gave it all? The secret is so much bigger......than you and me.

Most of this I posted in 2010 when I decided to start a blog but it has been on my mind and a topic of conversation between and friend and myself this week.

Without intentionally trying I have been anwering that very question I pondered then "If I share mine, would you?" The last few years I have really strived to be more honest not only with others but with myself. To reach out. To share with others during "real" moments from miscarriages, to parenting frustrations, to the loss of this dream for the fairytale life and trading it for real life instead...and more times than I can count I hear from others....me too.   Me too *sigh of relief*  It's like once you open the door the "burden" the struggles and the joys are no longer yours alone to carry. I have found a few others who have been willing to take the risk and be honest too about their "secrets" about their hopes and fears and real lives..not the lives we project to the outside world...but their real, every day, lives. In that I have cried. I have hurt, for myself, for them, for others, but I have found hope too.  Real hope. That makes every moment, every tear worth it.

The quote above that started this whole blog and self reflection I just realized today has been a guiding light and in fact,
I have found redemption in strange places and small spaces.
Calling out to best of who I am.

Life is a journey that is for sure and we are taking this journey without a map, without instructions, but when we are honest with others and even more important honest with ourselves the path to take becomes just a little bit clearer.

Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence. ~Lin Yutang

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

bipolar maturity levels

"You're only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn't lose it. " ~Robin Williams

Some recent conversations sent me digging for a few pieces of nostalgia.
Music primarily.
CD's to be more specific.

In my quest to find a few particular, targeted Cd's, I stumbled upon an entirely forgotten CD of completely inappropriate and immature rap music.

I pulled up to the gas pump, singing out the lyrics to a song that has more curse words than I have probably said in the last 6 months combined (eerily why is that we remember the lyrics to such things!?) and honestly rather enjoying it! 
A lady got out of her car, black pants, black coat, approximately 35 years old and I thought to myself....wonder what she's listening to?!

This got me to thinking....

I am not sure when it happened. Sometime over the last year maybe two,

I cannot leave the house without making my bed!
(I know mom?!  RIGHT?! Only took me 30 some years)

Certain things about me have grown up.

Matured.

Whatever.

and then....

then there are the other parts.

That just seem to refuse to "grow up!"


I'm afraid I may be a bit bipolar within my maturity levels!

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?  ~Satchel Paige

*I would definelty not put down 33 for an answer on that one! At least not this week! It is weird because I can see the responsiblities that for the most part I carry successfully at work and at home, but at the same time I hardly feel "old enough" or "mature enough" to claim to be responsible enough to carry them if that makes any sense what so ever.
I would love to hear how you would answer that question!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

pink and purple princess day

Because time itself is like a spiral, something special happens on your birthday each year:  The same energy that God invested in you at birth is present once again. 
~Menachem Mendel Schneerson


I like birthdays.


I like the hoop-la

The fanfare.

There is something about birthdays though that I didn't fully appreciate until after having children. 
It's more than just the magic.


It is so easy for days,
sometimes, shamefully, months to go by where I seem to hang on for dear life.
Not sure whose in the driver's seat as time whizzes by.

It is easy to miss a lot.

Survival.

In fact this post from another blog is not far from the truth sometimes!

But!

But....

Things like birthdays make us stop.

I love that.

I read my post from Kadence's birthday last year and it is so true.

In fact it was so true,
so from my heart,
that I can't compete to write something better this year.
My wish for her then continues to be my dream for her now.


All day I just looked at her in amazement. 


When I stop to consider how much it takes for a healthy baby just to be born....
and then factor in how much growth and change that takes place in just four short years. 

Pure Wonder and Awe.
In Awe of who she is,
who she is becoming
and the happiness that oozes from her every day,


and full of wonder about the woman she will grow up to be.


Leaves me speechless. 


Life is full of uncertainty,
but there is one thing my kids can be certain of...
My love.



so I repost the the end of her "dare to dream" birthday post last year....

As she blows out her candles Saturday she will be wishing for something pink I am sure....
but I will be wishing for a way ~ for her~ a girl in the world today
~full of messages of not good enough, pressures, standards, and hurt~
to bottle up those characteristics that define her today so she can rise above "the world"
and continue to believe inside that she is "good enough."


To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e.e. cummings, 1955

I brought you into this world and will do my best to help you "fight" the good "fight" my dear.
It is a big task in front of us...finding the way in this world
but I promise I will strive to provide you with the roots you need today
so that you find your wings and have the courage to dare to do great things.
Yes, there is a lot of hurt in the world today,
but I can't help believe with every fiber of my being
that it is still a wonderful place
and life is full of happiness,
sometimes you just have to be willing to see it first.
Happy 3rd Birthday!   Happy 4th Birthday pretty girl!!