What differentiates us from each other? Why do I cry all the time, but my best friend hardly ever does? Why do some people get mad quickly and others never seem to? What makes some people eat when they're stressed instead of smashing something like others? Why do some people have a guilty conscience and others have none? Why are some people so amazingly spiritual and others just...there? Why are some people brave while others cower in fear? Why is one person kind and sweet and bubbly while the other is cruel and bitter and harsh? Why do some like rock music and others like opera? Why chocolate instead of fruity?
Are we all really so very different? What MAKES us that way?
I was hanging out with a friend the other night and we have known each other for years. But we got into some deep conversation and we discovered that we are very much alike. Not in obvious ways that everyone can see, but in ways that only we can see, things we don't share with other people. It took one of us trusting the other and letting out some deep things, and suddenly the other was taking a hand and saying, "Seriously? That's me, too." And we kept going, and we kept finding things that we had in common.
But anyone looking at us would not see them.
So it made me curious...how many other people are really like me on the deep inside, but I can't see it? How many people are the exact opposite in truth?
I don't know. I guess I'll have to start digging, huh?
What do you think? What makes us who we are?
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Life
This week I have been reminded of how short life is. A woman who I knew when I was a young teenager and whose mother is good friends with mine passed away on Wednesday after battling AML Leukemia. She had been doing so well, amazing, really, considering she was carrying her fourth child when diagnosed and delivered him healthy and strong, and for the past 10 months has been fighting so hard. But because of the weakness of her body, she was susceptible to infection, which is what brought her to the end of her life. She leaves her husband and four young children behind, the oldest is maybe 6.
It does not seem fair to have someone so young be taken. She was a wonderful mother and the rock in her extended family. She was an example to us all, and a friend to everyone. There was so much for her to do still, the least of which would be raising those children, giving them memories of their mother and teachings to live by. But my worrying self cannot help but feel anxious for her husband. How can he support and raise four children without her?
Needless to say, I cried for a while when I found out. I know that families are eternal and transcend the grave, but the pain is still there. Comfort is to be found, yes, but the hurt is not gone. Not when it's like this.
I am learning that God knows what He is doing, that we need to trust in Him. We won't understand all the time, and sometimes it will seem like we never do, but if we have faith that God's will is being done, we may have enough of a measure of peace that we can get through.
This life is short. Let us fill it when the best things, so that when it is over, whenever it is over, it might be said of us, "Their life was lived to the fullest."
God bless you, Annie, and watch over your husband and children. Thank you for being in our lives.
It does not seem fair to have someone so young be taken. She was a wonderful mother and the rock in her extended family. She was an example to us all, and a friend to everyone. There was so much for her to do still, the least of which would be raising those children, giving them memories of their mother and teachings to live by. But my worrying self cannot help but feel anxious for her husband. How can he support and raise four children without her?
Needless to say, I cried for a while when I found out. I know that families are eternal and transcend the grave, but the pain is still there. Comfort is to be found, yes, but the hurt is not gone. Not when it's like this.
I am learning that God knows what He is doing, that we need to trust in Him. We won't understand all the time, and sometimes it will seem like we never do, but if we have faith that God's will is being done, we may have enough of a measure of peace that we can get through.
This life is short. Let us fill it when the best things, so that when it is over, whenever it is over, it might be said of us, "Their life was lived to the fullest."
God bless you, Annie, and watch over your husband and children. Thank you for being in our lives.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Vanity
I was watching a few movies this weekend while my parents were out of town [it was actually quite a lot] and I realized something. If we look back at my previous post, I talked about finding the person who is right for you forever and not settling for the moment. I forgot to mention that keeping that love, that marriage working takes more than being perfect for each other and being together for the right reasons. It takes selflessness and the desire to work every day, among other things. Just getting the people and the place right does not mean happily ever after.
The first movie I'll mention was Vanity Fair. Becky Sharp was born poor, the daughter of an artist and a French opera singer. Hardly proper birth for the time. But she was determined to move up in the world. She became a governess to a moderately wealthy family and fell in love with the second son, who nearly worshipped her. They married and were disinherited by the family for her background. But they had love and each other, and Becky's determination to rise up from their surroundings. Unfortunately, that determination was not as much for her family as for herself. Through her near-desperation, she ruins her marriage and her life, losing her husband because he can't stand to live with her further for the pain and losing her son because she is deemed not fit to raise him. Ultimately, she does become famous...but not in the way that she had desired. Her vanity and pride ruined what could have been a wonderful marriage and life as a family, and she ended up alone.
The second movie was Gone With The Wind. Scarlett O'Hara is desperately in love with Ashley Wilkes, and it does not matter to her that he is engaged, for she knows that she is the woman he truly loves. She hates his fiance, though she is a wonderful, kind woman. As the Civil War approaches, Ashley is going to leave to fight, and in a desperate attempt to make him jealous, she marries his new brother-in-law. Charles dies quickly in the war, and Scarlett is forced to mourn him. She resents the restrictions placed on her, and thrives on attention. As the war ends, her family home and fortune are in ruins and her family nearly starves. In order to save her home, she marries her sister's intended, takes over his business and becomes even more hardened and embittered against ever being poor and hungry again. Her second husband dies as he defends her honor, and she quickly remarries the man who has loved her the whole time, the dashing Rhett Butler. But Scarlett still is selfish and spoiled and cannot see the love from her husband or the love she has for him because of her blindness until it is too late. He leaves her at the end, and when she asks him what she is to do, what is to become of her, he gives her the immortal words, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
Vanity was the downfall of what could have been. The inability to think of others or to see beyond their own nose destroyed lives and loves and marriages. How many stories in reality are like this? How many lives and loves and marriages have been ruined because someone lost sight of what mattered, because they forgot about the whole picture and only saw the part?
This life is a journey and yes, it is our own, but that does not mean we must do it alone. We should not do it alone. We cannot. And the more we try, the further behind we will fall.
The first movie I'll mention was Vanity Fair. Becky Sharp was born poor, the daughter of an artist and a French opera singer. Hardly proper birth for the time. But she was determined to move up in the world. She became a governess to a moderately wealthy family and fell in love with the second son, who nearly worshipped her. They married and were disinherited by the family for her background. But they had love and each other, and Becky's determination to rise up from their surroundings. Unfortunately, that determination was not as much for her family as for herself. Through her near-desperation, she ruins her marriage and her life, losing her husband because he can't stand to live with her further for the pain and losing her son because she is deemed not fit to raise him. Ultimately, she does become famous...but not in the way that she had desired. Her vanity and pride ruined what could have been a wonderful marriage and life as a family, and she ended up alone.
The second movie was Gone With The Wind. Scarlett O'Hara is desperately in love with Ashley Wilkes, and it does not matter to her that he is engaged, for she knows that she is the woman he truly loves. She hates his fiance, though she is a wonderful, kind woman. As the Civil War approaches, Ashley is going to leave to fight, and in a desperate attempt to make him jealous, she marries his new brother-in-law. Charles dies quickly in the war, and Scarlett is forced to mourn him. She resents the restrictions placed on her, and thrives on attention. As the war ends, her family home and fortune are in ruins and her family nearly starves. In order to save her home, she marries her sister's intended, takes over his business and becomes even more hardened and embittered against ever being poor and hungry again. Her second husband dies as he defends her honor, and she quickly remarries the man who has loved her the whole time, the dashing Rhett Butler. But Scarlett still is selfish and spoiled and cannot see the love from her husband or the love she has for him because of her blindness until it is too late. He leaves her at the end, and when she asks him what she is to do, what is to become of her, he gives her the immortal words, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
Vanity was the downfall of what could have been. The inability to think of others or to see beyond their own nose destroyed lives and loves and marriages. How many stories in reality are like this? How many lives and loves and marriages have been ruined because someone lost sight of what mattered, because they forgot about the whole picture and only saw the part?
This life is a journey and yes, it is our own, but that does not mean we must do it alone. We should not do it alone. We cannot. And the more we try, the further behind we will fall.
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