THAT'S LIFE

Today has been a day that has brought me huge smiles as well as huge concern. Days like this happen sometimes. I found out my mother requires surgery. I hurt for her. She is afraid, and I can understand her fear. I will do all I can to help her, be with her, and anything I possibly can to ensure that her pre- and post-operation times are calm ones.

On the bright side, one of my most favorite online friends~and one I have known for over two years~had joyous news she told me this morning. This woman knows me practically inside out, and I love her to pieces. To hear her happy voice telling me her boyfriend asked her to marry him thrilled me. He even had the ring selected! To you, dear Kim, again I offer my most heartfelt congratulations. It is your time to shine.

To another friend I spoke to later on in the day, thank you for a wonderful conversation. I enjoyed it immensely. ::smile::

I do not really want to write a new entry today. The highs and the low of the day have just been recorded above. So, I am reposting an entry I had in my old journal. The date I wrote it is March 28, 2005. I hope some of you find it a worthwhile post to read.

THAT'S LIFE (REPOST)

"Life is drawing without an eraser." Oh my! I came across that line while viewing a breathtakingly beautiful slide presentation. And as occasionally happens, it is a quote which instantly captivated me. In its simplicity, it speaks volumes. I know I will always remember it.

And so, I spent some time thinking about it. I thought of how accurately it describes our lives. We are each given a huge blank piece of paper and an ink pen, and we sketch our own life pictures.

Some of us have sweet drawings from our youth on our paper. Our childhoods were wonderful ones, and we put the ink to the paper and recreated the images of joy we experienced. For others, that portion of the paper is blurred or depicts unpleasant scenes~reflections of harsh or sad childhoods.

But, we roll up our paper and grab our pen and stumble into young adulthood carrying them with us. We draw frantically during that time of life. Sometimes the ink spills onto our paper leaving ugly dark blotches. We attempt to fix them but to no avail. The ink is permanent. We then work around them and try to be a bit more careful while drawing our pictures. We learned something by being careless with the ink, and we hope we do not again make that same mistake. There are an amazing number of life events we need to record at that stage of our lives. That part of the picture is filled with countless contrasting images representing those years. Scenes of hopefulness, frustration, energy, heartbreak, enthusiasm, confusion, happiness, optimism, and delusion all occupy that section of the paper. All sketched in ink. Permanent.

We finally sit down and study what we have drawn, hoping to glean some valuable information from the varying pictures. We wish some of the scenes could be erased, but we know it is impossible. Some people will shout that it is not fair we were given ink instead of a pencil to record our lives. Others will quietly take note of the permanence of the pictures and make sure some of the ugly pictures and spills they themselves caused do not reoccur.

We stride along...our works of life tucked under our arms and pens in hands. We are maturing. Perhaps our drawings are becoming increasingly more complex, more intricate. We may spend more time creating the pictures. We are careful with that ink, because we learned what happens when we are not. We want to create only beauty and soothing scenes. Unfortunately, if we are to accurately portray our lives, we must include everything. We reluctantly draw the events which made us hurt deep inside. The times we felt shattered. The ones that made us angry. The ones which embarrass us.

We pause at length and look at our work. Some of us see that even with the spills, the horrid images, and the painful scenes, there is a definite sense of balance between those and the ones which cause us to rejoice and our hearts to swell. They will feel a sense of satisfaction as they view their lives on paper. Some will be unable to see anythingon their paper except the ugliness. They will rebel once more about how unfair it is. Outsiders peek at their pictures and see some lovely images amidst the ink splatters and unpleasant scenes. They will wonder why the creators cannot see around those ink blobs and unattractive depictions. They may also wonder why there are so many spills. Surely they learned that ink needs to be handled with care, didn't they?

Unroll your paper and take a good look at it. Study it. Follow it in order from your early youth up until today. What do you see on your paper? Have you been messy working with the ink? Have you not yet fully realized that there is no eraser available? Are you still bemoaning the requirement of the use of ink? Do you see scenes which make you smile? Are you creating more of those scenes each day? And when you come across the ones which tear apart your heart, are you also seeing the happy images that surround them? We may not get to erase what we have drawn, but we are all given the same opportunity to learn the permanence of the ink.

Today's quote:

"Many of life's circumstances are created by three basic choices: the disciplines you choose to keep; the people you choose to be with; and, the laws you choose to obey." ~Charles Millhuff