Balancing the Past, Present, and Future
In the past two weeks, Facebook has been sending me quite a few reminders from posts, notably four and six years ago. While I realize that Facebook, as being something that is emotionless can't pick up on the what the events it's choosing to send me, the past isn't always a place I want to go. Yes, it happened, yes, it is part of my life, but I choose not to live there. Six years ago, my German Shepherd Daisy was sick with a lethal cancer at 5 1/2 years old. She died in early December that year despite a whirlwind of activity around her to save her life. Not a day goes by that I don't think of Daisy as I walk down my stairs and the painting of her greets me. She is the impetus for many things in my life, notably Gidget (who right now is barking at something, probably a cat).
This morning a post came up about Hattie from four years ago. What I realized about it was that it was two days before I moved back to Illinois following a freshly finalized divorce. At the time my former husband was on Facebook and we chose not to announce our split until the night before I left. Seeing the photo of Hattie reminded me of the tough road that was ahead of me.
My life is great today. It's not perfect and I choose not to write about much of the imperfection because, well, that's life. Nothing is every perfect but it's how we face it and react to it. I always have a long list of items I'm grateful for each day and today is no exception. There is much hope, especially as I am on a new venture with the Michelle L. endeavor. One I am hopeful about, but I'm not really sure where it will take me in the present moment– or it's more like I know where I want to go, I'm just not sure how to get there!
This week I found four pennies which was quite a few in a long time. I strongly believe my dad sends them, reminding me he is with me, and of strength for the journey.
It's easy to get caught in the past– of what was and what we don't have anymore, or the future of what we want but we aren't there yet. Still, we need to remain rooted in the present, of where our feet are planted right in this moment. The more we do that, the less we feel any pain or sadness of what is gone and what hasn't happened yet.
