I've been doing a whole lot of that lately for better or worse. I pulled out my copy of "Oh the places you'll go" because we're using it for our promotion ceremony on Sunday for our residents. It made me smile because I remember when Rebecca gave it to me and I will always think of Rebecca every time I see a kids book. But what she wrote in it made me think a lot. One line said something like "Don't let anyone get in the way of your dreams." If I still had it in my possession I'd look it up, but it is at church. It certainly reminded me that I need to remember that. Ultimately, it is my life, so doing things that make me happy is important. I've spent a lot of my life not thinking that way. That's one of those things where it seems so utterly selfish that I couldn't bring myself to live for me. But what was I doing to myself in the process? Making myself miserable that's what. Yeah, there's a happy medium. I still don't think that walking all over people to make yourself happy is a good idea. Never have, never will. But being miserable is not in God's plan for me.

It seems so terribly obvious, but it is true. We see it with the story of Israel, we see it over and over again in scripture. I feel like this is just surface theology spilling forth, but I guess it is something I've been mulling over for awhile. I've had some crazy stuff happen that has caused me to really evaluate friendships and how I react to friends and how I treat them and how they treat me. Don't get me wrong, I have a whole bunch of really great friends. Though that is true, I've also had some not so stellar friends and I haven't figured that out. But I guess part of me thinks that it was ok to have friends that didn't treat me with respect because their happiness came before mine and I thought that was just the way it was supposed to be. Well, I'm learning that is a bunch of bunk.

I'm so thankful for my opportunity to step back from where my life has been and to look at it from a new perspective. I definitely think that when I leave here I will have grown as a person more than I could have ever imagined. If you've never read "Oh the places you'll go" I suggest picking it up. It sure made me smile today when I needed it.

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