As I thought about this subject this morning over my coffee, I just kept thinking of that saying that has floated around social media for some time that says “Everything happens for a reason. But sometimes the reason is that you’re stupid and you make bad decisions.” That made me laugh thinking about it. Yes, everything happens for a reason, and I have most certainly been the one making bad decisions, and that being the reason something happened. I’m pretty sure we can all admit to being stupid and making bad decisions throughout our life. For me, I think it’s when I try to control things and make things happen versus trusting the process. I have done that too many times to count and even at my age, I still do it. I might have a slight tendency to control things. Okay, I have more than a slight, let’s be honest here, but I need to slow down more and just let life happen for me and not get in such a hurry!
You might disagree with me that life just has a way of happening but think about this with me. Can you control the seasons changing? No! They just happen. Can you control what family you were born into? Nope, again, just happens. Trust me, if I could control that, I would have been born on an estate in Napa Valley, California growing grapes and making wine, but I was born in Bloomington, Indiana to a middle class family. If you want to be honest, my family was low income at the time of my birth. Life just happens! The seasons change, the weather changes, you were born to the parents you were, it just happens!
I know you’re thinking there is so much that we do control and it’s not just life. You’re right about that. You can change where you live, you can change your career, you can change your health, sometimes, you can’t always change your health, but you can make changes to improve it, you can change your friends, you can change any relationship you’re in! We were all given free will, and yes, that does effect our lives, but there are so many things that we cannot control and instead of realizing that, and going with the flow and trusting the process, we try to fight against it and too often, we mess up our lives terribly! That’s where I am going with this! I have found myself losing hope lately, not trusting the process, and believing that life isn’t going to work itself out and be everything I want or deserve. What naturally comes after a good hard rain? A rainbow. Rainbows are a sign of hope. You survived the storm, now here’s this beautiful thing to behold that says you weathered the storm. It just happens!
I had a change in my job last year, and I fought it, kicked and screamed and cried, ask why this was happening to me, etc. You get the picture. I had settled into this life that had been created quite nicely and I wasn’t ready for that to change. I was able to work from home, work out 2 hours every day, travel to CA 2-3 times each year. What was there not to like? But then, life happened. It’s caused me to totally re-evaluate my life and where I am at and where I am going. I don’t have the answers yet, but I am trying to trust that something is coming and things are being worked out the way they are supposed to! I was totally handed a job that I didn’t search out, which in turn has allowed me to gain a new set of skills and meet so many amazing people. I don’t think that was a coincidence. I actually don’t believe in coincidences! I have met some people who have changed my life and who will forever be a part of my life. I never would have met them without my job changing.
Let me talk about people for a minute. I think every single person that crosses our path was for a reason! They may have been brought into our life to teach us love, to point out our strengths, to point out our weaknesses, to teach us a skill, to show us who we can be, to show us who we don’t want to be. Maybe they needed me or you for a time and only we could give them what they needed. I honestly don’t know why people were brought into our lives to abuse us, other than to make us stronger and give us a voice to help others. Think about this for a minute, we are all given free will, and sometimes the people that come into our lives are not meant for the purpose that we bring them in for and that causes us pain. We have red flags with people but we choose to ignore them and have a relationship with them when that was never meant to be their purpose in our life. We can bring hurt and pain on ourselves that shouldn’t have been there. That’s not life dumping on us, that’s us making the wrong choice.
I say all of that to say take a look at your life and the people in your life. Your life is what it is for right now, but that’s not the forever picture of how it’s going to be. If you find yourself lost right now, start searching for what you want, start educating yourself, read, meditate, pray, find out what the lesson is and trust that something beautiful is about to happen. So often we give up just before the breakthrough comes. Just don’t lose hope! Yes life happens, but we also have to do our part. If you’re not fulfilled in any area of your life, and you find a stirring in the pit of our stomach, start making the necessary changes right now. If you don’t, then the life that is going to happen is you sitting around, no hope, bitter, unfulfilled, broke, unhealthy and alone. You still have to do your part. We all do! So today, let yourself dream! Let yourself have joy and hope and trust and believe that good things in life can and will happen to you!
With love for you all,
Shauna
Shauna's Sisters 