A time comes when you “grow up”

There comes a time in your life when you finally get it. When in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside you cries out ENOUGH!

You realize that it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon, and that any guarantee of “ happily ever after” must begin with you and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.

You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect, and that not everyone will always love or appreciate or approve of who or what you are and it’s OK. And you learn the importance of loving and championing yourself, and in the process a sense of newly found confidence is born of self-approval.

“Peace and contentment are born of forgiveness”

You stop bitching and blaming other people for things they did to you or didn’t for you and you learn that not everyone will always be there for you…and that its not always about you.  So you learn to stand on your own and take care of yourself and in that process a sense of safety is born of self reliance. You stop judging and pointing fingers, and you begin to accept people as they are, and to overlook their shortcoming and human frailties and in the process a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness.

Then you learn about love. Romantic and familial love. You learn how to love, how much to give in love, when to stop giving, and when to walk away. You learn not to project your needs or your feeling onto a relationship. You learn to look at relationship as they really are and not as you would have them be. You stop trying to control people, situations, and outcomes. You learn that just as people grow and change, so it is with love, and you learn that ‘alone’ does not mean lonely.

“To give into fear is to give away the right
to live life on your terms.”

You learn that, for the most part, in life you get what you believe you deserve and that much of life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen is different from working toward making it happen, More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success, you need direction, discipline and perseverance.

You also learn “no one can do it all alone” and it’s OK to risk asking for help. The only thing you must truly fear is the great intimidator of all time: FEAR. You learn to step right into and through your fears, because you know that whatever happens you can handle it, and to give into fear is to give away the right to live life on your terms.

“Serenity is born of acceptance.”

You learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom. You learn that life isn’t always fair, you don’t always get what you think you deserve, and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people.

You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy, hate and resentment must be understood and redirected, or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you.  You learn to admit when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.

And take it from me…you learn to be thankful and take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about a full refrigerator, clean running water, as soft warm bed, a long hot shower. Slowly you begin to take responsibility for yourself, by yourself, and you try to make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to never ever settle for less than your heart’s desire.

….And as you hang a wind chime outside your window, so you can listen to the wind, you make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful possibility.