New Beginnings.

As I was walking to get coffee this morning in a brand new city, I was thinking about how exciting new places can be. 

This place is beautiful.

It's saturated with historical milestones.

The buildings are beautiful.

And the roads are slightly haphazard due to being constructed during the pre-city planning era.

I pulled up maps on my phone, looked at reviews, and chose a place which looked relatively close and decent. My friend told me a shortcut, which I used with the map, and I made it there without hitches, got my coffee, and proceeded to walk back to my friend's apartment. 

On the way back, I didn't use the map.

As I approached near where I was going, I started down the final path I thought would lead me to the large parking lot surrounded by apartment buildings. 

But there was a moment I paused.

Something didn't seem right.

Was this really the same path I walked down at the beginning? 

I was so sure it was right at first. It was just west of the old cottage. 

I remembered the fence that cut through the buildings.

 It had to be right.

I nearly turned around.

But for some reason, I didn't.

Now, I realize, so far, this is just a mundane story about my walk.

But hang with me.

I didn't turn around, and a moment later, I took a turn on the path I recognized.

I was on the right path. 

Had I turned around, it would've been just before I found the place I needed to be.

And I think this speaks so much to our lives.

We are certain we need to do something.

We start doing it.

It's exhilarating.

New.

Beautiful.

Fulfilling.

Then we come to a point where the path looks unfamiliar.

We wonder if we were actually supposed to do this thing in the first place, the one we were certain about to the core of who we are.

And I wonder... 

How many of us are actually frightened enough by that uncertainty to turn away? 

What if that uncertainty was really just the moment before something big was about to happen?

What if it was the moment right before you found your niche? 

What if you turned away just before you made it?

Now, clearly, there are times when we all make the wrong decision, and we really should turn around.

But this morning was a good reminder to check myself.

To remember, sometimes, new paths, though exhilarating, are scary. 

They require gull, poise, and going just a little further. 

Don't give up, just yet.

Whirlwinds.

Loneliness.

Oh, how you’ve been a friend to me.

Thankfully, one I’ve seen less and less these last few years.

But you’ve got me perplexed.

How is it we are so far from each other one moment, yet so close another?

I think I’ve found the reason:

We want to be close.

It may be difficult to believe, but I’m truly beginning to think the root of isolation begins within.

 Clearly, we don’t sit around thinking about how much we can’t wait to feel lonely.

We don’t sit around dreaming of feeling isolated and unloved.

However, we certainly tend to believe we’re screw-ups.

That we’re hard to love.

That if we mess up just one more time….

Which is why I’m suggesting, maybe that old adage, “It’s not you, it’s me,” one thousand percent applies to this.

Recently, I’ve been privy to experience love in a new way.

Dozens expressed their love to me through phone calls, messages, comments, and texts when I finally admitted how I felt about my family situation.

It made me realize, though they may also have some fault in the situation, I was the one who kept running so quick, I totally missed what they were trying to offer.

Maybe they weren't offering it the "best" way possible or how I needed it, but at the end of the day, the views I thought they had of me and the views they hold of me are largely different.

Just because someone isn’t always up in your business or checking in on you, doesn’t mean they don’t care.

It also doesn’t mean they do care.

But it’s better to check than simply assume they don’t.

Because sometimes, we get so caught in our own whirlwinds, we forget to stop, and breathe, and remember those who’ve blessed our lives so very much.