Friday, August 04, 2006

I remembered something someone said to me one time and I wanted to blog about that tonight, because I think the concept is really important. My former track/cross country coach (from freshman year), and one of my many mentors and people I look up to said to me, regarding something I asked her about:
"It's a wonderful thing. Don't second guess it all the time."

It didn't hit me until I was thinking about it and reread it where I had written it down years ago, and after the mission trip and some conversations that I had then. It really makes me think now. Because I think a lot of people do that, I know I do-- this whole second-guessing of good things in your life. It's different than an unappreciation. It's almost this inability or unwillingness to believe that good stuff can happen to you, whether you think you don't deserve it, you're scared you'll screw it up down the road, or you're afraid to believe it's true for fear it either won't be or it will vanish. But I realized that if we're ever to find even a piece of happiness here on earth, we have to relish the good things and allow ourselves to revel in the feeling. It's scary; it's unnerving; it can even make you feel guilty, but I think it's healthy too. There ought to be a part of all of us that allows ourselves to believe, if only for a little while, that we deserve good things. We can handle having good things happen to us, and we can also accept and move on when the good things disappear. I also think that the whole moving on and letting go thing would be a lot easier if we allowed ourselves to fully appreciate and enjoy the good things while we have them, before they're gone. I don't know. Just something I was thinking about.