Well, actually, Raine, you were different. You didn’t want a perfect life, a typical life, or even a normal life. You wanted a one-of-a-kind.How we doing? ~The Universe
Do you receive notes from the Universe? If you don’t I highly recommend it. A sweet daily dose of inspiration and encouragement delivered do your inbox every day. And it uncannily has provided me with just the thing I needed so many times. I have a folder in my email where I place particularly cool ones. I received the one above recently.
And, it’s so appropriate because it’s something I’ve been thinking about recently. My life has recently come together in ways I’ve never expected – but when I look back I realized I’ve come full circle – if by circle you actually mean a decades long meandering, journey that has now overlapped itself.
Because, you see, I could have had a simple life. I was engaged to the boy next door when I was 17 years old. We were just two farm kids who came together more because of proximity than anything else. We decided to move to Seattle so I could go to school and grew together in a variety of ways and then grew apart. And then we broke up.
Here’s the weird things.
1. He was a member of the United Church of Christ. He didn’t go to church often, but one of my best friends was a part of the same congregation, and I did go a few times with her, as well as with his family. And of all the religions/denominations I’ve explored it was that church community that had always felt the most comfortable and “right” to me.
I rejected all religion a short time later and and even the whole concept of a “higher power”.
Since moving to Huntington I have “found God”, joined the local United Church of Christ, and been baptized.
2. This boy and I decided to become vegetarians because of the horrors of factory farming – some that we had witnessed firsthand.
Now I am working toward a full-time vegan diet. I’ve been blogging about it here - Hot Vegan Mess.
3. When I was a middle school and junior high I took private art lessons and art classes that were actually for adults. In high school I rejected my “arty” side and focused more on math & science, friends, and sports. I continued to reject that side of myself through most of my 20s.
It wasn’t until my late 20s that I started to delve into my creative side – and not until my 30s that I decided to claim the mantles of “artist” and “photographer.”
4. Even though I was engaged at 17 – there was a part of me that thought I would never get married. With that first relationship I kept putting off setting a wedding date. I always had a push/pull relationship with relationships and domesticity. It’s that push/pull that led me to be married and divorced twice in my 20s.
Now I am happily married for almost five years (anniversary is December 1) to an amazing man who gets me and can deal with my particular brand of crazy and have the two most awesome children in the world.
So, I could have done the simple thing – gotten married right out of high school to a great guy, moved a mile down the road from my parents, joined the church that my husband’s family belonged to, become a vegetarian, and been an artsy housewife.
Now I am married to a great guy. I live in a relatively small town, am active in my UCC congregation, am becoming vegan, and am a SAHM and an artist who is working towards opening an art gallery in 2011.
Such fundamental parts of myself that I’ve flirted with and dabbled in. And finally have come full circle to embrace.
And along the way I’ve had so many adventures – lived so much life – good and bad. Like the time I hopped in a VW bus with a guy I barely knew to travel from Seattle to Mexico (that didn’t end well). Taking a leap of faith and moving from the safety and comfort of Seattle to Dallas - a place I moved to sight unseen. The helicopter ride over Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. Opening an art gallery with a crazycool group of artists. Seeing so many amazing concerts – John Lee Hooker, U2, Depeche Mode, Dead Can Dance, Cake, the list goes on and on. Getting married in Vegas. Deciding to drive to Vancouver, Canada to hit the clubs there. At age 18, making out in a cab, as it’s pouring rain outside – while riding around the streets of Bogota, Columbia. The many, many, many late nights spent in dance clubs and dive bars in Seattle and Dallas and New Orleans. Having my heart shredded by the person I thought was my soulmate, my one true love – left in a city I didn’t know, surrounded by strangers. Working in food service, for Greenpeace, in accounting, in air freight operations, and as a graphic artist. Meeting the very first person I’m actually related to by blood – my son. Being a gallery wonk and a sign slut all at the same time.
My life has not been perfect, or easy, or typical, or simple. But it is full of memories that will last a lifetime and experiences that have shaped me to be the person I am today. And I know I have many more amazing experiences in store for me.
