Taking to strangers

So, here I am trying to figure out the extended passion I’m looking for. This blog has become a lifeline to my soul- it has given me a reason to look at things going on around me longer, and more closely then before- it’s caused me to truly want the best for myself and others because I feel like a weight I had hanging around my dreams has been lifted.

Since writing again I’ve watched life more closely- I’ve paid attention to myself more closely. What I would usually brush aside I don’t- what used to rattle me, I won’t allow.
Here are a couple realizations about strangers, and openness.

Life has given me plenty of opportunity for reflection lately. I had my oldest child get married the first weekend of October. That’s an eye opener. Talk about reflection and having the Kenny Chesney song “Don’t Blink” playing on a continual loop inside your brain. Watching a child get married will cause such a phenomenon.
I also had my youngest child and her family move “home” from halfway across the country, a blessing we never thought could happen but is now a reality! To reference another country song “I’ve learned to never underestimate the impossible.”

Then, a phone call from University of Michigan hospital yesterday to report some not great news on my heart which has been giving me trouble since May….so yes, I’ve been on reflection overload.

So, let’s get back to looking at life closely, really closely. I know it’s easy to just keep things status quo. What’s not easy is to look back in a year, five years or twenty, and see that you’ve not lived your passion. Knowing that you only get one chance at life-ONE! Knowing you didn’t feel like you were worth the effort it would take to be passionate about life is…sad.

I submit exhibit one… I had to travel last month, two flights between Georgia and Michigan. My longest flight found me stuck next to a couple who wanted nothing to do with eye contact let alone conversation- so I napped with my headphones on. For my shorter flight I flew seated next to the sweetest gal, the same age as my daughter. She was on her way back from a business trip in Utah, and we struck up a conversation about work. She is in sales although she really wants to be a teacher. I told her my daughter is a teacher, and she and I spoke about how her mother had taught for thirty plus years, but it’s her mother who had encouraged her NOT to teach because she wouldn’t earn a “healthy paycheck. “
Toward the end of our flight this sweet gal says “I really should teach, right?” It was said out load, as a question but really not directed to anyone. I think she was throwing it out to the universe. She followed that with, “I mean who wants to go through life and not try to fulfill their passion.” She literally says this, to someone whose writing about “passion!”
Kismet!

Here’s hoping she does what her heart tells her to do. Since when was a paycheck with a bigger number on it worth more than a soul that’s fulfilled?

So, visualize your on a plane and you’re talking to a stranger you’ll probably never see again…what’s your best airplane seat realization? What do you admit out loud to strangers you’ll never see again? The realization might startle you. Things we speak out Loud are powerful.
Things we speak out loud to strangers are sometimes more powerful!

I submit exhibit two…. Recently I was invited to join a Facebook group for folks who have had open heart surgery. A week or so ago a gal asked the question “What do you not admit to your family?” The response was startling! I can’t recall how many folks commented, but it was well over one hundred- all willing to tell strangers things they wouldn’t tell their families. The reasons all varied, but very few people said they were an open book to their own families. Me included.

So listen to what it is you tell yourself…listen closer to what you tell a stranger.

Till next time~
Erin