Recently, while wandering a farmers market, I stopped at a jewelry booth and ended up in a conversation with the old lady who ran the shop. We started talking about life and what it teaches you, and the conversation stayed with me. I started making a mental list of what I've learned, and thought it would be fun to share some of it with all of you.
1. Everybody deserves to have a good life. Even if it means they had to break-up with you to get there.
2. Not everyone will desire the life you lead. Some will choose a life so polar opposite to yours it will be hard to accept that it could be a path to anything but misery. Learn to let them walk their own path. You will find peace in the let-go.
3. Not everyone that we are connected to by blood should be a part of our lives.
4. It's a terrible thing to assume anyone is more than just a person.
5. If he treats you right, doesn't play mind games, and will be there for you, date and marry him. Don't keep him on the sidelines as a friend to cry on when the other guys treat you poorly. That guy should be your future husband. Life is way too hard sometimes, and the one that will see you through the hard days, the ones where you are literally out of your mind, is the one who actually loves you.
6. The hardest thing you'll ever face in life will be the thing that actually kills you. Everything else will just change you for better or worse. Most of how it changes you is up to you, some of it isn't. Learning what is and isn't up to you is the hardest part of the lesson.
7. When you get into your thirties, you realize that none of it matters anymore. You've arrived. Let all the social bullshit go. Just be you, and leave your door wide open for the good things and good people. There's just no more room for toxicity and you really don't have to keep letting it in.
8. You are in style if you say you are.
9. Life's too short to wear uncomfortable shoes. Luckily, designers are very creative these days, so you can still look nice without binding your feet.
10. Everything that was in style when you were a kid/teen will become in style again by the time you hit your thirties. It happened to our parents, it's happening to me, and it will happen to you.
11. Absolutely nothing will prepare you for the loss of your parents, or the realization, that you are next in line. It's ok, though... this has been the way of the world for millennia, and everyone is going through it at some point. You are not alone.
12. Learning to love "what is", instead of "what should be" is the secret of life.
13. It is ok to change, and grow, as life takes you to new places. Sometimes/usually what you lived for before isn't what you live for now, and that's ok. There's a season for everything, and maybe now isn't the season for that old way of life anymore. Maybe later will be again. Maybe it won't. It's all ok. Embrace what is.
14. Surrounding yourself with plants will do wonders for your psyche. Mom Nature knows a thing or two. Try it. I dare you.
15. It's fun to think about the incredible and carefree days of the past, but don't get stuck there, there's still so much more to come. Live now.
++ What is one thing life has taught you?
[Photos are of the most glorious trumpet vine I ever did see. It was so big and in full bloom, I had to flip a u-turn and get out and take photos.]
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