PATHS

People are in our lives for specific reasons. We learn things from them, we are the learning instrument to others. Some people touch our lives for short moments, some are here for years and years. I believe that some people are here to bridge the link to another path. Some people are here to show us the way, some are to let us see what we do not want. But all are here for a reason and each one leaves us with something. I think that if we are wise, we will take the best parts of what we have learned and keep building the person we want to be.

Life shouldn't be a plan that takes us from birth to death. But rather an action plan that takes us on amazing adventures:
There is a good man who lives on the same piece of land he was born on. I love that!  He is authentic, pure, simplistic. He makes me want a clean uncomplicated, unadulterated life. I have learned so much from him. Things long forgotten, things hoped for but not seen. His path has been steady. I think that he has been sitting at the crossroads for a very long time. If he stays there, life will continue to look picture perfect. But if you look beyond the picture, the one that we all put out there for others to see, there is nothing to look forward to, no more progression, no moving forward, no adventure....no life. He craves more, but is afraid to take the step toward the new path. Even though he knows it would bring the happy and fulfillment he craves. As the years go by, that picture still looks great, but the effervescence of life may be slipping away. Oh how I want wonderful adventures for him!

We all have events in our lives that we would never, in our right mind have chosen for ourselves. Things that don't go with where we want to be. Hiccups along our path. Detour signs: 
A friend of mine who is at a fork in his path said "For the first time, in well over 30 years I am truly on my own and it is an odd feeling." Prior to the last 30 years, he was a bad ass ruffian. To know him now you would never see it, he chose to walk another path. The adventures along his path have been varied, and have made him a good man. But now that his path is unfamiliar to him, he is feeling lost. He is currently at the bottom, there is only one direction to go; up. He is wanting this new start, this new path. Sometimes our new path starts with us being in the dark. I hope the bad ass ruffian is a thing of the past. I hope that his adventures to come are spectacular. 

Sometimes someone will come into your life and help you learn something about yourself or who you want to be. Then they are gone. Only to come back into your life sometime later to help learn something totally different:
I know woman that represented to me, self confidence, being yourself while living up to the standards set for you. She made me want to recapture who I was once upon a time; the me I had let go when I adapted to what I thought I should be. Our paths went separate ways. Life changed.... for her, for me, for many of us. We all cope and struggle in our own ways. Conquering some pitfalls, pulling ourselves out of others. Taking new paths. This friend is back in my life. Still being herself and moving forward. She is picture perfect to look at. I think this time around, as she and I travel down our paths that are touching, she is the one learning. She shows bad ass strength in every thing she puts out there for others to see. But if you are close enough to see behind the bling and glitter, you will see that she is scared and vulnerable. That she is unsure of herself and she is seeking reassurance. I was at her place last night for Girl's Night In. There were alot of women there. We all knew her, but we new few, if any of the others there. We all had a blast. She introduced some of us as we were chatting. Someone asked who she had know the longest. She looked around the room and said "Angie". She then told how we met and where we were in our lives at that time, and how our lives had brought us to a tandem point yet again. Later as the evening progressed and I was ready to call it a night, we had a minute to talk. Her walls were down, her barriers were relaxed. She asked "How are you so okay?" I said it's about learning to be comfortable and happy with who you are,  needing to like who you are and loving your self. She said she doesn't know how. We will be doing lunch next weekend! She has so many Adventures ahead!

Having to trust in who we are, learn to not only like ourselves but love who we are, valuing our self, caring for our self as we move forward, is sometimes the hardest things of all.