The Rubber Band

You know how I keep referring to living life in the middle?

Well I came across this bit on my God Daughter's IM profile. She's a teenager and she thinks she's in luv. She's gorgeous and talented and of course I am not biased in any way. But she and I have never discussed this. So I found it interesting that this was on her profile.

"Life is a series of pulls, back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle... Which side wins? Love wins. Love always wins."

Now, I had to admit that I laughed when I read it. Evidently it means that I am not the only crazy person in this world. I had to find that entertaining really. I mean, she's 16. She gets it at 16. You know what I was doing at 16 ? My head was more than likely up my ass. She shocks me every day with the depth of her perception and intelligence. And she scares me every day with the exact same things. Because she is only 16.

But be that as it may. I think that people as a rule do tend to live in the middle and that's how and where they draw the strength to ride the waves into the peaks and valleys. Let's face it, no one should charge into those peaks and valleys without some degree of strength.

Which explained why I received the advice "Don't make any major life changes" after my dad died. Sadly, I had little control over that but I do truly understand why. I hadn't had enough "coasting" time in the middle to recuperate to handle the job change and moving out of my home a month later, and buying a new home all in the same 12 months. It forced me to put off grieving for a year. Which was not the healthiest thing to do.

It's that intensity that youth approach any given situation with that still makes me wonder. I look at my approaches to the same situations ( on paper) and realize that the only reason that I am more successful now, is that with age comes wisdom.

But that wisdom started in my youth. I looked at human nature a bit and discovered that we really encounter the same types of situations over and over again in our lives. The only thing that is different is how we respond and react to them. And here's where the wisdom comes in.

And how did we get that wisdom and the strength to act using it? By living in the middle of the rubber band and coasting while we recuperate and regain our strength.