staying open

Over the past few weeks I have been lucky enough to run into two old friends from high school!  It was exciting to sit down with two separate people from two different times in my life and catch up! The feeling was warm, conversation was easy and the laughs were continuous! I found myself smiling thinking about the good times we had and the mistakes we made together. The mistakes have made us who we are and to see both of these people all grown up with their ducks in a row was amazing. I realized that I have been “pigeon holing” these old friends into the places they were when I last knew them. It was so great to see them all grown up, in better places and on a better path in life. It was refreshing to see they are still the same thoughtful, kind, fun loving guys I knew way back when, just a little older!

Seeing these boys from my past, has really got me thinking. How does this “pigeon hole” thinking affect us? I think we are all guilty of it. You remember what you remember. You forget that people can change, people do change; surely you are not the same person you were ten years ago.  You have changed over the years.

This applies to so many things in our lives, not only relationships with people but also relationships with things. When I was a kid I really did not like stew and just assumed that as an adult I still did not like stew.  Then one day I accidentally over cooked a roast, so I cut it up, added some vegetables and homemade gravy and voila - stew! Now I go out of my way to make it, stew has become a staple at our house!  

Being able to acknowledge change in all aspects of our lives is important.  It is easy to get stuck in our ways, easy to get so comfortable with our ways of thinking and our opinions that we lose the ability to change.  We still have the ability but maybe we are too comfortable to let those changes in. Changing is growing and if you stop growing you stop contributing! We are on this earth for a short period of time and we need to stay open in order to make the most of it! 

I feel grateful to have been able to see these two old friends and I am so happy for them and for all the positive changes they have made in their lives. I feel grateful too that I have been able to make this realization and to open myself up to the idea that things are not always the same as I remember.  I think we all need to let go, forgive and open ourselves to what is ahead instead of remaining stuck in the past.

It was a good reminder, seeing those boys, a good reminder to keep myself open. Open to change, not only within myself but also within others. Open to being accepting and forgiving. Things are forever changing and change is good. I never realized I was doing it, but I think because it has been so long since I saw them I just assumed they were the young men I remembered. There have been lots of really good times, lots of late nights, lots of laughs and there was a fair bit of irresponsibility. I am not that same person, but for some reason I thought they would be. 

Why?

Why did I think they would not have grown up and moved on too? I am not really sure why I thought that way but I do know that I am really glad the universe pointed it out to me!

r