Please don't be disappointed but this isn't going to be about the 80s band.
I've noticed a recurring theme popping up in various conversations over the last week or two and feel that it's some kind of 'sign' that I should write about it. It's the idea that we each have our own journey through life that we're meant to travel. Now, I realize this isn't exactly original or anything...after all, hardly a night goes by that you don't see a diamond commercial for Journey necklaces...but several conversations later I feel compelled to put something down in print. (Feel free to skip all this if you're feeling it's a tad too trite.)
It seems as though we all have trials and circumstances that we face in life that form who we become next. We're all evolving and changing (some just more glacially than others) and our truer self emerges after each test. What really makes it interesting is thinking about how the really unpleasant stuff in life can change us for the better. For example, Sean and I had a discussion about Chance recently that centered on friends. We were both relating our unpleasant school-age stories of unpopularity and how we were bullied (in one way or another) and talking about how those awful experiences shaped who we are today. At some point in the conversation I told Sean that I would happy if Chance became a man just like his dad, to which Sean replied that part of who he is stems from the unhappiness years ago. Do we want to shelter Chance from the bad experiences and "risk" (for lack of a better word) him not being shaped into a better man?
No one can predict what children will become, they have their own journey to travel and experience. We can try to smooth the path before them but would we really be doing the right thing by them?
In another example, I was telling a friend about the history behind Sean and me. I told her how we met in college, dated a little, I got married, divorced, and Sean and I reconnected and eventually married. (That's the Cliff Notes version...you don't have time for the unabridged version.) She said what most people say: "It's too bad you two didn't just get married way back then." Again, the conversation became one about personal journeys. I know that if we'd gotten married back then, fresh out of college, that our marriage wouldn't have been what it is today. I needed to go through the experiences I had in order to fully appreciate who Sean is and what a good marriage is supposed to be about.
Anyway, I feel like I've done a poor job blogging about life journeys and their lessons...but I had to get it out in print. Just do me a favor: if you've made it this far without surfing off to more exciting places, please share your journey. I'm interested in reading other thoughts on this topic and not just my own musings.
