Monday, March 18, 2013

What Would You Tell Your 14 Year Old Self?

If I could go back 30 years and have a talk with my 14 year old Self,
I wouldn't try to tell her a damn thing.  I couldn't.
She wouldn't even be able to grasp what I now know from years of living
AND she wouldn't have listened anyway...

While purging stuff throughout my house, sifting through boxes of pictures, I found a photo of me at 14 years old.  I am in my childhood home on Tabor Street at my sister's high school graduation party and I had just graduated from the 8th grade.  When I looked at myself, the first thing that came to mind was: Wow!  Such innocence.  And I stood there smiling as I thought of the adventures that would lie ahead as I entered high school, college and my own life outside that of my family.

Celebrities are often asked in interviews:  What would you tell your 14 year old Self based on what you know now?  This question brings a nice thought of being able to save our Self from all bruises from life bumping into us, all the falls into potholes and all the jumps off the cliffs.  But I say:  Give me a fu&ing break!  All life experiences serve us even the ones where we seem to Self-destruct; and the girl I was is similar to the woman I am in that I wouldn't have listened anyway.
I now know the power of the direct experience that takes us into our Self more and more and more throughout life.

This is what we witness through Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, making her way on the Yellow Brick Road facing flying monkeys, the wicked witch and forces that seem bigger than herShe looked to everyone to save her but not until she tapped into her own power did she find her way home.  The Tin Man gets angry with Glinda when she helps Dorothy use her power, asking why she didn't tell Dorothy sooner.  Glinda smiles knowingly and shares that Dorothy had to discover this for her Self and this was only possible from the journey - all of it.

I invite you to view your journey as one of great discovery down your own Yellow Brick Road and understand that there is nothing to save yourself from.  Be with the direct experiences of life.  Revisit the past with fresh eyes and with wisdom of time, see all the gifts even the most costly.  Use it all!  Delight in your own personal Odyssey instead of feeling ashamed of choices that you can't undo, instead of feeling guilty for not doing it perfectly, instead of blaming others and resenting them for NOT saving you.

And if you must tell your 14 year old Self something:  Tell him/her that LIFE
is WONDROUS and MIRACULOUS even when it sucks!

No comments:

Post a Comment