Skip to main content

The Only Thing for Certain is Uncertainty

I used to live in a world where I could be drinking tea in the middle of a field with no cups and no tea.  I could be running for my life from a dinosaur, in my backyard.  I could be anywhere I wanted doing anything I wanted, and then I grew up.  I hate that those worlds no longer exist.  I hate that I cannot play and pretend anymore.  Imagination is crushed by the realty of dreams not being possible.  You cannot see the world unless you are independently wealthy.  You will have to pick and choose which dreams you actually want to achieve because seeing it all is not something that is in the cards for you.

Discouraged.  Angry.  Sad.  I hate hearing people tell me to dream smaller, wish less, and pursue money.  I want to breathe in Tuscany with the wind blowing in my face on a  Vespa, I want to have a picnic in front of the Eifel Tower with cheese and wine and crackers, I want go to the floating market in Thailand and wear a silly hat, I want to see the Northern lights while drinking a hot cup of cocoa, I want to see a Red Sox game in Fenway and eat a hot dog, and the list goes on and on.  I don’t want to choose. 

I am at a crossroads that will never be decided for me.  Moving to the other side of the country was a romantic idea that worked out for me in a lot of ways, but my family is now 3000 miles away as I put down roots.  What do I sacrifice?  I have worked hard to establish myself in the way that I have always dreamed of.  I am the person I want to be.  I work towards Godly selflessness in a way that most would see as exhausting.  Where does that leave me.  My heart is divided and so is my head.  I cannot imagine this one away.  I am not writing to report on some incredible discovery that I made that magically solves the problem, but I am making it clear that some decisions are not black and white.  This is the perfect example.  Career will never be what I base my decisions on, but unfortunately money does make life much easier.   Sometimes there is not a right choice, just a bunch of choices.  Do I stay where I am?  Do I move home?  Do I move to a third place? 

I know it seems like I always ask a million questions and never come to any conclusions, but I have always believed the day we accept things as easy is the day that we stop growing.   Opportunity costs were one of the concepts I grasped most easily in school.  In order to do one thing, you have to give up the opportunity to do something else.  I guess that is what I am weighing out.  The good news is in all scenarios I am surrounded with love, affirmation, and peace that God has my best interests at heart.

I would also urge anyone to live in the present.  We are where we are for a reason.  As a great man once said to me, “It is what it is.”  As I stress about my next moves and worry about whether I will be going down the right path, I also know that many wish they were young again and I should revel in life as an uncertainty while I still have the heart and imagination to do so.  With time comes responsibility, and I will tackle that when I need to.  As for today, I will love with my whole heart and learn how to be selfless for others so in the future I am not worried about my own opportunity costs, but rather how I can help others achieve their dreams.   

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In the Nursery: Whole Hearted Parenting Manifesto

I recently finished a book by Brene Brown titled, DaringGreatly .  It really moved me, and I am definitely still processing it. At the beginning of the book I wasn’t resonating deeply with the topic of vulnerability, as most people will tell you I am an “open book”.  I will answer most questions without holding back and love to deep dive into good conversation.  However, what I came to realize through her many examples is that we all wrestle with vulnerability, guilt and shame throughout this book even if is more momentary than constant.  I gleaned SO MUCH from this book that I did not anticipate, and I thought I would share this Parenting Manifesto that she put right at the end of the book.  I am printing it and framing it for our nursery, as I think it communicates some deep parts of my heart cry for parenting my kiddos well. I hope this resonates with someone else as much as it did with me.   I needed these words to remind me that parenting is not a checklist,

A Penny For Your Thoughts - Looking Back & Missing Italy

 I took this my first day in Italy, and will always remember my town just like this... I realized something about my writing the other day, and that is that I am much more present in my writing than I am in my brain.   I am constantly thinking back, but I never write about my past.   Sure, I write a story here or there reminiscing on my African travel, but rarely do you hear about my life pre-California unless it is in reference to my family.   Lately, I have found myself pining for Italy.   Did you know I lived there?   Probably not, because I rarely mention it! I knew I was going to love it there, but it has stuck with me since the moment I left.   I have wanted to go back every   minute of every day since then.   The simplicity of life, the emphasis on slowing down, the architecture, the food, the flowers, the people, the color, the trains, the bikes, the gelato, the smiles and laughter, the wine, and the cities are only scratching the surface of things I love from the bea

At the Library - May through September 2019 Reading

We had another baby in May (SO much more on that later) and blogging has obviously taken a back seat, but I am still reading for pleasure and have managed, in my sons first four months of life, to complete these 8 books!  Y'all, I remember a time when even completing 2 books a year would have sincerely sounded daunting, much less with a newborn.  If you want to read more, you can find the time!  Take stock of your days and see where you are wasting hours.  For some of these, I listened to the audio book while I was pumping or watering the garden.   Rather than give you an individual breakdown of each of these books, I just want to report I found them all incredibly enjoyable.  A total cross section of a food memoir to a psychology deep dive to nature centric novels, I would recommend them all in different capacities.   We have fallen a bit behind on our Bible reading, but we WILL finish by the end of the year. You do not make it to September