I already mentioned this yesterday, but today would have been my brother's 65th birthday. He's now been dead for more years than he'd been alive. I sent out an e-mail and some pictures to family members reminding them that today would have been Jon's 65th birthday. My sister Laurie sent back an e-mail saying that one of the pictures I'd sent she thought was from a family trip approximately 55 years ago where Jon saw and then pointed out whales to the family. She claimed that that was the experience that got her into being obsessed with whales. I call her the whale whisperer.
On a trip to Hawaii to celebrate her 60th birthday, within 2 hours of being off the plane (and needing to go shopping after we got in), we were on a boat watching whales. And OMG it was the greatest show ever. We even got to see male whales doing their 'like me more' dance for the female in the group. Spectacular.
So I was thinking what about the people we all know? Why are they in our lives? It really is NOT just to make us crazy - but to show us something, introduce us to something or someone, give us something that only they would be able to give us no matter how insignificant. And on the same note, what have we given them?
Over the next few weeks I'm going to be looking at and making a list of people who have been in my life, what I got from them, and what I think I gave to them, though we can really never know that.
I would NEVER have guessed that I would bump into one of my middle school English students three or four years after she was my student, and that she would enthusiastically tell me I was her favorite teacher and how I got her to love Shakespeare. Really? That was a definite shocker!
The other thing I'm going to do is write down all the little and big miracles that have happened to me.
For instance, when I'd been skydiving and living out at the drop zone, I had somehow managed to lose a bunch of weight and never even realized it until I went home for a visit and didn't have many clothes with me. I went into an old closet and took out some beige cords and remember thinking "These will never fit." I put them on and I was right, sort of, they were shockingly too big. I took off my clothes, looked at my body and had no idea how that had happened. I was skinny.
One Christmas morning, I had a few hours free and decided to clear out an area - just clean it up. Miraculously it went fast and I got so much done, I could hardly believe it!
I met my ex-husband in a time management class that David Allen was teaching through Insight Seminars. I was the team captain for the volunteers and Mark walked into the room wearing a yellow polo shirt. I looked up, saw him, and thought "Oh, there's my husband." Then I thought, nah, too Jewish (I'm Jewish and didn't think I wanted to marry a Jewish man). I made no effort to try and meet him, but we did, and then we dated, and then we got married and then we had our daughter, and then we got divorced, but it was all good. Really, at least in retrospect!
I am sure there are more experiences like this and I want to dig them up and look at them so I can appreciate them and make that kind of thing more prevalent in my life.
I wonder where those activities will lead me...
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