Commencing

 

"Baby" Girl, All Grown UP

 

Today is a bittersweet day.

Not only is it Kit-Kat's graduation, her first official step into adulthood,  it would have also been mine and Darling Hubby's fifteenth wedding anniversary. We will find ourselves, dressed in fancy clothes, surrounded by family, in a church. It would have been the perfect anniversary present.

Just as those graduating today thought they would never see this day, I am happy to say I've come out the other side of these past five months a better person.  From merely surviving the storm, to learning to trust again, to maybe even daring to love again.

Much like the graduates, moving from the world they knew for so long, toward an uncertain future, I face it with renewed excitement, but also trepidation.  I want to tell them "Real Life is Not Upward." Real life is not fair. If you didn't learn something about winning and losing, you'd better learn quick, because in real life, they really do keep score. But only you can chose if you are going to be the victim or the victor.  The victim laments repeatedly over the bad luck and bad breaks in their life. How nothing ever works to their favor. How everyone must owe them something.

I. myself. chose victory.

Follow your passion.  Think of the one thing that you love to do and do it. Follow it with reckless abandon. And do it will all of your heart and soul.  I really enjoy helping others and making others happy. That is how I wound up with a career in Customer Service, but I have kinda always done what I do, in one form or another. I really don't see myself doing anything else. It's about serving others and that makes me happy.  I am really good at it. I used to think, at times, that I hated my job.  People mistakenly think that the opposite of Love is Hate, but it's not. Hate still contains passion and fire. It's still love, just in another form, and  can still be turned back around, as long as that passion is there. Apathy is actually the opposite of love. And when you are apathetic about something, it's dead.

Use the gifts God gave you.  The sermon this past weekend is about finding your spiritual gifts. One thing that the pastor said that stood out to me was to never discount a talent as a gift God meant for you to use. Like my writing. I have always been good at it. Others have always told me that putting my thoughts down in words, or finding a way to express their feelings in words, came easy to me. And I must be pretty good at it for those who "hate" me to still be reading my blog. LOL! Perhaps this has been my spiritual gift all along but I never saw it as that before because I was so short-sided that I couldn't see how He could use it.

Make your mark, in your own way. Remember how I mentioned that Kit-Kat bedazzled her graduation cap. It made her stand out. People noticed. It was a little thing, but it had made a big impact, there among the sea of navy blue. Some small gestures. like being courteous. or being generous with time and talent and expecting nothing in return, also makes a big impact. People will notice and remember.

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or for a lifetime. Be willing to accept that, and learn to recognize which ones are which. I think of the lessons that I learned from the "season" that has just passed. The importance of being honest, loyal, trustworthy, frugal, but most of all, appreciative for the life that I worked so hard for. I've rediscovered some friends along the way, that the Lord put in my life long ago, for this very moment in time. I found Cyn again, my BFF partner in crime. We hang out, joke and cut up like nothing ever happened. Or like L/G , who I had impressed all those years ago and find today that that attraction is still alive. Or "W," who I knew of, just as he knew of me, but should have met. They may be the reason: to teach me something about myself right now; they may be my next "season": to help me grow more and move on to the next level; or they could very well be the lifetime friends that I grow old with. We shall see.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I present to you the graduating class of 2014.

~En-JOY!