This has been flitting around in my brain for a couple of months now...starting the Quilting Bee again. I have missed our chats. I loved doing this in a class form..but honestly..I missed that is was just something that we did as a whole...no cost or passwords..just here..with me and you...and a cup of coffee..and a treat.
I will throw one out there and see what you all think. I have set out some delicious cupcakes for everyone...lemon, vanilla, chocolate..you name it..those sweet little ones that are for sale everywhere..please help yourself! Of course there is Kona coffee and every kind of tea you can imagine!! I did not forget the yogurt and granola either! So grab a cup and a cupcake and make yourself at home. Pull up a chair and let's dive into a new quilt!
I read a book by Debbie Macomber last week "Between Friends"..about a couple of friends and their walk through life together. It chronicles their life through correspondence. It made me think about choices I have made and where I had been. It made me think about why we look back so often and feel sadness. Sadness for the loss of who we were..who we could have been.. regret. I also felt fondness for who I was..what I experienced..way back when. Like somehow I had my greatest me thirty years ago!
I loved the book(I do love her stories!)..but seriously it made me sad..and of course that is when my Muse decides to have a chat with me. Seriously...did I really think that my very best me was presented years ago..the best, most exciting things happened to me when I was 18? That standout performance in Grease..or that trophy won on my horse..that art award? Or maybe it was that one dear friend that I lost touch with..that best friend? Do we look back and feel melancholy because we feel our best has already been lived? Wow...ok that was news to me.
I turned 50 this year..you all know this..but the surprise for me was all the stuff that came along with it...like the above stuff. I felt Melancholy for the past. So..my Muse started prompting me to seriously look at that..
Me at about 17 on the left..my neice Tamara (now 35) and my sister Anne!
"OK Sarah...what amazing things have you done in the last thirty years since you sang in Grease? What have you created, offered up, learned, birthed that tops being on stage at 18???? SERIOUSLY!!??"
Wow well....let's see..I have had five amazing kiddos!! I have helped raise dozens more through my teaching..I have developed my art to the point that it makes me happy and I think others too. I have walked through hell and back and survived a stronger woman. Oh...ok I get it...I am mired in the past..and forgetting to acknowledge what glories I have had since..and now..and could have!!! OY...I am not looking forward to the amazing things to come. WOW...I was stuck in who I was..not who I am. Seriously..you could not pay me to go back there..so why do I put such weight on who I was then? I am thinking because I bought into the whole...being older is not a good thing! Geesh..seriously?
"Yup you have been wallowing in the past glories..and forgotten to see the glory of now..the joys you have and those to come. I am not saying throw them away, those joys...just put them in proper perspective! Do ya get it now?"
Uhmmmm..yup..thank you..will have to chew on this for a bit..update my database..seems I am working with an old one...REALLY OLD!!
So I am going to grab a cup of coffee and a bitsy lemon cupcake! What do ya think..do you find that your working from an old data base..forgetting to add new glories? Are you busy reliving the past glories..and forgetting what amazing women(and men) you are? Please share with us a past glory and then please tell me what glory you should be (or are) celebrating now! Cause I wanna know!!
Thank you for joining me today! Namaste and hugs, Sarah
7 comments:
No glories today for me. Turning 60 this year has made me look back into the past more than I have before. No real glories in the past either. Lots of good times that I didn't recognize as such and times and places I wish I could return to but know that is just Fool's Folly. Youth is so wasted on the young! Time spent whiled away on things that are in the larger scheme so unimportant. I in looking back am appalled at some of the poor choices I made that I am paying for now.
With the death of a close friend a month ago, I have found I am questioning so much. And really, is this all there is?
So back to meditating and trying to find a balance in my life. Trying to do away with the unnecessary and to appreciate what I do have and the beauty of my surroundings.
Don't spend a lot of time looking back, way to much to look forward to. It's like Rafeki (the monkey in "Lion King") says, "It doesn't matter, it's in the past."
(((HUGS)))
Those cupcakes are too pretty to eat.
Having made a career of bad choices beginning at 15, I spent the early adult years making up for dumb mistakes. For the longest time, they were my "glories"...getting my degree while raising three kids on foodstamps and no child support...getting that first really good job.
It has seemed that the last twenty years or so, I was "coasting". Not really accomplishing much, but that's not so. Maybe I don't have a new "resume" of heroics, but I can see changes in my own maturity, personal growth, and an acceptance of self-worth as a valid commodity. I've learned TONS of new things in the last twenty years, and am now a wealth of valuable skills, knowledge, and experience.
Thanks for the cupcake and the tea (mine was Earl Gray, deeeelish.)
Jan
It's easy to wallow in the "best things have happened" thing when we are at what society tells us is a landmark year but it's only a number. Those things are what made you "YOU". The beautiful, reflective, wise woman that you are today. I don't know if the best is yet to come but I do know that there is still a lot of good to come, fun to come and beauty to come. I look forward to every day that is to come!!!
forgot the header... it gets WOW WOW WOW
This post served as a good kick in the pants for me. I've done a wee bit of wallowing the past few days. 'Nuff of that! Love, love, love your yellow post.
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