SPT - A Closer Look

SPT is Self-Portrait Tuesday (Thursday in this case)

Lelly's challenge for this week was to take a closer look at your life and see what it is that gets more attention than anything else. It was hard to narrow this down -- I give bits and pieces of attention to so many things. Life is busy with kids, work, church responsbilities, home responsibillities.... But the one thing that I try to give priority to, for sanity, is reading. I love to read for the different and interesting insights every book brings.

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I love how blogging gives us an interesting and unique opportunity to peek into each other's lives. It's made me think about how different we all are -- and how much alike. It's a perfect balance.

"All cases are unique, and very similar to others."
T.S. Eliot

In the book I just read - the one on motherhood - the author shared her story. I found it to be just the opposite of my story, and yet very similar.

Her story was that she entered college with a plan in mind, she had picked wedding colors and had a timeline for everything to happen -- graduation, marriage, kids, and then a quiet life of working at home (teaching violin), volunteering for the PTA and being involved in church callings. Instead, she ended up with an amazing career and incredible opportunities and then had the opportunity for marriage and children much later than she had planned.

I entered college having given no thought at all to wedding colors. I had the idea that I would graduate, have an amazing design career, and then hopefully get married and have children. By the time I was finishing my junior year and was about to turn 21 I felt strongly that I should serve a mission. It was hard to leave my program and friends and postpone graduation, and I knew that the decision would alter my future, but the feelings I had were stronger than my thoughts.

I left that summer to do an internship with a design firm in London. Served the mission (in England, incidentally) and then went home to graduate and get going on my international work visa so I could return to London and start working for the design firm since they had offered me a job.

Not long after I got home I met Chris and my whole perspective changed. I knew, the same way I knew about the mission, that I should marry him. We got married a few months before I graduated. We had Jordan much sooner than planned (against the odds). Years later Jemma came long (later than planned). My design career plans have been sidelined. Often this life seems pretty ordinary. But the point of that book was to remind us that it's more than that.

Just like the author -- I'm thankful for the unexpected course my life has taken, even if it's completely different than how I'd imagined it.