This summer was the misspent summer of my youth that I never had. I spent my teenage summers doing remarkably earnest things, like believing I could change the world. I spent my college summers mostly thinking the same thing, except for that one summer - that particular summer could have been horribly misspent but I was disgustingly responsible instead and continued to march on. So that brings me to this summer...sort of...
There's no need for details. Let's just say I got a few things out of my system. I have no regrets, zero. My boys were safe in grandparentlandia and I was on my own for a bit. I'm going to leave all of that to imaginations everywhere, because the assumptions will be way better and wilder and more interesting than what actually happened and will trump anything I can write.
I've been reading a lot of different things lately - books, magazines, newspapers, internet articles. One book that has been very interesting is Wild by Cheryl Strayed. It's a memoir of one woman's struggle to put her life back together while hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. She talks about "trail magic", defined as "the unexpected and sweet happenings that stand out in stark relief to the challenges of the trail." So, here are some of my trail magic moments:
1. Sometimes someone's silence doesn't mean they don't care. It means they are human and are maybe not sure what to say or how to say it without sounding weird.
2. Sometimes my perceptions of things are very wrong. (Yes, I did just say that I can be wrong.)
3. People are not stupid.
4. Purple flowers made my heart happy.
5. Church still hurts. The level of evisceration varies a lot. There was one time when it didn't totally suck.
6. Sometimes it's a timing thing, and then you get that phone call or that second interview or *gasp* competing job offers when you least expect it.
7. The end of the world as we know it might be the beginning of a better one, or at least one with new challenges.
8. Trying something new can change your perspective (and leave you with very sore arms).
9. Sometimes being brave enough to ask the question is more important than the answer. Sometimes framing the question even to yourself is a good start.
10. Friends and good conversation can happen in the most unexpected settings.
None of this is rocket science or Nobel-worthy. It's more like a list of a few life lessons that were maybe not completely checked off on my list of "what I know", and are now firmly in the category of "what I know now."
