~E.E. Cummings
I had a conversation with someone the other day that got me thinking. Just a year ago I was in KY finishing up my time at Asbury, and I was in such a different place in life then (literally and figuratively). By the end of my time there, unhappiness my primary feeling. Partly due to my environment, but mostly because I felt like I had lost myself in so many ways. This past year has been a journey of rediscovery. Some of it has been good, some bad, and I have made mistakes, but I have also had beautiful moments too.
I feel like joy is coursing through my veins once again.
I always bemoan my time in KY, but honestly, I am grateful for it. It was, up to this point, both the best and worst period of my life. God changed my heart in magnificent ways. I didn't realize how much I had grown until I had a chance to be removed from it.
I have recently acquired a new friend, who reminds me constantly of where I have come from. (Its no one that reads this blog - at least not to my knowledge). First, let me say that I care greatly for this person (in case anything that follows seems to suggest otherwise). They are so much like me. It is part of what makes or friendship work. However, part of what makes our friendship difficult is that they are too much like I used to be. Have you ever had this experience? It is so weird how you can "get" someone, but also know that they are on a dangerous pathway because you have traveled it ahead of them.
I am going to resist my tendency to "analyze" someone else and focus on the only person I have the power to change, me. While I have made some changes for the better, I, as I mentioned before, have also lost some important parts of me. Like a recovering amnesiac, fragments of myself have been returning to me. For the most part that has been happening organically. Part of the Get My Life Right Campaign 2011 [GMLRC 2011] (this is the title of my new phase of life) is being more intentional about rediscovering, discovering, and claiming and reclaiming my authentic self.
