A friend of mine, who I at one point considered myself to be extremely close with, shared a photo on my Facebook timeline the other day.
I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
When I saw it I laughed, it was funny, and I’m always up for a good cuss word LOL. Then I realized I didn’t relate to it at all.
This was the image:
There was a point in my life where that image would have gotten an AMEN GIRL! or #preach response in the comments. Probably somewhere around 2013, I would have been ready to cuss out puddles and proclaim my ocean-ness =P
Not this day.
My response was more like: Hey man, puddles are cool too. It takes all kinds of water to take care of this world. Just think whatever I would have said right before embracing the nearest tree in a bear hug.
It occurred to me that EVERYONE who has ever passed through my life, has me completely frozen in time.
If the people in my life haven’t stayed close, stuck around to watch the growth, fought through the hard times, and been part of the day-to-day, I am whoever I was to them, the last time they knew me.
THINK ABOUT IT:
My ex-husband will never know how adoring and caring I am capable of being.
Most my family will never really know about my hopes and dreams.
Every coach who ever left my team, and hit the unfriend button, will never know my compassionate leadership.
Every person who danced on a bar table top next to me, will never know me as professional entrepreneur.
The people I met on our year long road trip travels, will never know the settled down, family version of me.
THIS APPLIES TO PEOPLE YOU JUST MET AS WELL:
My sober friends will never know my table dancing ways or my loud life of the party personality.
My church friends will never know my atheist rhetoric and disdain for religion.
My current coaches will never know my over the top, intense, passionate drive and unwavering faith.
My new friends who get to share in my hopes and dreams, will never know the girl who had nothing to hope for.
My future mom friends will never know the true adventures I lived before finally choosing to tie myself to something.
EVERYONE EITHER KNOWS WHO YOU WERE OR WHO YOU ARE. There are only a very small FEW who know both.
Assumptions are being made about you from a permanent point of view, even though nothing about a human is permanent. Every cell in our body is in a constant state of change, yet we hold people to who they were in a year, a month, a day, or even a minute long meeting.
WHY???
You have have frozen me in time, or I may have frozen you. You may have someone else that you need to go unfreeze. Regardless, I think it’s time we all stop and reintroduce ourselves, because it’s safe to say, based on this, none of really know each other at all.
