Shooting for the Moon

           What if, when you shoot for the Moon, instead of landing among the stars you don't even make it there?  You get stuck in a tree, and the branches block out even a view of the Moon and the stars.  You try to cut the branches away but to no avail because you don't have the tools to do it.  You keep trying and trying until eventually you give up.  

            Suddenly, a charming man comes into your life and chops the branches away.  You can finally see the Moon and the stars again; there's hope!  But time goes by, the branches begin growing back, and that man isn't with you anymore, not helping to cut down the branches.  The Moon and the stars are gone once again.  All seems lost once more.  

           But one day a different man comes and helps you out of the tree.  Even though you are back to where you started, you can start over again.  And this time things might just be right.  This man may be the one you've been waiting for, the one who can help you shoot for the Moon and succeed.

Fate

     

    
     I've been, recently especially, thinking about how "lucky" it was that my boyfriend Marshall and I met...but "lucky" isn't the right word.  I truly believe it was fate.  All the hardships I went through and the decisions I made in high school and afterward (deciding where to go to college, what to major in, my reunion and then break-up with my ex-boyfriend Charlie) all led straight to Marshall.  If even one little aspect of the path leading to meeting Marshall was out of place, then we quite possibly would have never met!  My decision to go to Stevens Point for college, the timing of my break-up with Charlie and the heartbreak that caused me to join eHarmony just in time before Marshall gave up on it, and then once I was on eHarmony there were tons of matches and somehow Marshall found me...so many little details went into this.  It's such an amazingly, intricately beautiful miracle of Fate.

      "God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you."  Those Rascal Flatts lyrics really make sense to me now.  Everything I went through--all the loneliness, envy, desperate dreaming, and heartbreak--was worth it because it brought me the best gift of all: my true love. 

     People can call me a sappy romantic if they want and claim that what I believe is merely dreamy make believe, but I will always and ardently believe that true love exists and that God will lead you to this special individual who was made just for you.  And when that happens, your world will never be the same. 

     When I look into my true love's eyes, I am overcome with a wondrous sense of awe.  Whenever I look into Marshall's eyes, seeing and loving both his flaws and his qualities, I believe I'm catching a glimpse of God, of eternity, of true beauty and purity.  "When we love rightly, some mortal being can become a window through which higher dimensions of reality shine forth."  It's not just a shift of perspective; it's a whole new reality...a reality of true love like you've never felt before.  A love so strong and eternal that both amazes you/fills you with joy but also frightens you with its startling intensity.  It's like loving God.  I think this love is actually a love for God.  He led you to your true love, so He lives within this individual, and the unconditional love you share with your lover can spread to others so that they can find their true loves...their glimpses of God.  Because after all, "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16b).

Twilight

     

     Taking a hike on this crisply cold December afternoon, I watched as day turned to night, light to dark, and marveled at the beauty and mystery of the in-between moment: twilight.  It's not yet dark but it's also not quite light anymore either.  The world is suspended in a moment between an ending and a beginning. The day is about to end and the night is about to begin.  As I observed the beautiful scene of the snow shining and the dark trees branched around me, I suddenly thought of a quote that Edward says in the book Twilight: “It's twilight. It’s the safest time of day for us. The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way...the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don’t you think?”  I really like this quote.  It's very true. Twilight is a bit sad, especially at the end of a day that was particularly wonderful.  The day is ended, and that day will never exist again.  The day that has passed can never be repeated. 

      But there is also beauty in this ending because to quote "Closing Time" by Semisonic, "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."  With the end of a day comes the night, which can be frightening sometimes, but after the night there is always the dawn of a new day, a day where anything can happen, and where a person can do or become anything he or she sets his or her mind to: a "new beginning" after a "beginning's end."  There is such beauty in this, and most of us don't really take a moment to realize this beauty, including myself, but being in nature always helps me to realize the beauty in not only this particular moment but in all moments. 

     Nature connects me to the world around me and brings me wonder and realization of how blessed I am to live in such a world of contradictions: of endings and beginnings, of comfort and danger, of fire and ice, of predictability and unpredictability.  Each day and night is always unique, but the progression between the two can always be depended on.  Always after day will come night and then day again, continuing on and on until the Earth's life ends.  Our own lives correspond with this progression of time.  Our days and nights are both different every day but continue in the same progression day after day and night after night until our lives end.  We may not know for sure what comes after death, but if it's anything like the wondrous contradictions of life on Earth, then it should be simply marvelous.   

My Lucky Star

    

     All my life I've waited for you.  My hopes and dreams designed you, and the wishes I sent to countless shooting stars created you.  But I never knew you existed, and you never knew I existed either.  I wandered alone, strong at first, bolstered up by the belief that I may find you someday soon, but days, months, years passed, and I still hadn't found you.  I'd catch glimpses of you in dreams, and though they were lovely and enchanting at the time, when I'd wake up to face reality they became soul-crushing.

     I began to lose hope.  A few times I thought I'd found you but then realized I'd been mistaken, and this eventually led me to complete hopelessness and apathy.  I realized I may never find you, that you might not even exist, and my world turned upside down.

     But then you suddenly appeared out of nowhere and turned my world right-side-up again.  You knocked me off the ground, lifting me up into the air, and my life would never be the same.  You found me, the true love I had created.  I knew without a doubt in my mind that it was you.  Sometimes when I look into your eyes I see those shooting stars flash by, the stars brimming with wishes for you to be born, the stars that created you and dropped you into my life.  I thank the stars everyday that you found me, my lucky star.

Darkness

      : a word with definitions and associations on completely opposite ends of the spectrum.  The most widely used association with darkness is an association with fear of the unknown and despair.
     
       Darkness blinds us, making us unable to anticipate what's to come or what's right in front of us in the moment even, and this is very frightening.  Humans like to be certain of the world, to completely organize and understand the world around them, but the darkness taunts us, showing us that certainty is impossible.  We can never truly be certain of anything because we live in a universe filled with uncertainty.  Thus, we're afraid of darkness because it reminds us of our vulnerability, how little we are in an immensely uncertain universe.
     
        Darkness can have a positive association though as well.  When we're having a bad day and want to escape the real world for a while, the darkness within our closed eyelids is a very good friend.  Within this darkness we can either set our minds into a void of nothingness or we can dream of anything we want to, even the impossible.  Also, the darkness a person may encounter when he or she dies--the darkness of eternal sleep--can be a very welcoming darkness.  It contains the promise of no more struggles and no more pain, just a peaceful sleep with the welcoming, velvety embrace of darkness.
    
        I marvel at how a single word can have so many unique definitions and/or associations.  It just goes to show you that language can never truly define the world around us.  The universe is far too complex and uncertain for that.  And that is not something to be afraid of; it is something to marvel at and enjoy.   
  

Let the Magic of Christmas Shine in Your Heart

       

         Christmas time is here yet again, and just like every year, I can barely wait!  I love Christmas so much!  There's just something so magical and filled with coziness and love at this time of year.  It's the holiday that renews the child within us and the wonder that comes along with being a child.  A world that, while in other seasons of the year looks drab and depressing, becomes completely new and unimaginably beautiful and enchanting.  The feeling of depression--or even apathy--is replaced with joy and love.  And the world that once was dark, cold, and cruel is now bright, warm, and pure.  Some people are unable to have this shift of perspective when Christmas rolls around, are unable to get in "the Christmas spirit" so to speak, and I truly feel sorry for these people and wish they could feel the absolute comfort, joy, and wonder I feel at this time of year.  How wonderful the world would be if we could all keep the Christmas spirit all year round.  But alas, this doesn't happen, and even for major Christmas fanatics such as myself, the magic dies a little bit more every year.  It's called "growing up," and it's highly overrated.  If only we could keep the child-like joy of Christmas in our hearts forever, right?  Well, we might not be able to keep all the magic we had in our hearts at Christmas time as children, but we can try to keep the memories with us and keep as much joy, love, and wonder in our lives as we possibly can.  ...And follow the code of the elves! :
1. Treat every day like Christmas.
2. There's room for everyone on the nice list.
3. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

Perspective

 

There are so many people in this world, each with a completely unique perspective of the world.  There are approximately 7,125,000,000 people in this world.  This means there are over 7,125,000,000 unique perspectives of the world.  That’s a startling amount, and every 8 seconds, another perspective is added to this list.  What if we were able to see the world from all of these different perspectives?  This would be an amazing discovery.  The mysteries of the world would become much clearer, and the world would be much more peaceful for then we’d know truly how each individual sees the words and we’d truly be able to empathize with each other.

So, this most likely will never become possible, but we can still try.  Try by being accepting of each other and patient, not judging a person before you get an insight into his or her perspective.  For there is no one right perspective.  The right perspective is a culmination of all of the perspectives together into one. 

 

 

 (Population statistics from: http://www.census.gov/popclock/ )