That Elusive Something

I am quickly approaching my twenty-ninth year, and in retrospect I have learned quite a lot this year about myself, and life in general. For instance, no matter what our circumstances we cannot let life hold us back from achieving our goals, reaching our dreams, and receiving blessings. If we all sat down to really consider what we do not yet have we all would probably have a list a mile long whether it be unanswered questions, a guy or a girl we would give anything just to look in our direction, a chance to start over, or just having everything be right in our own little worlds.

There are so many of the little things we have been blessed with that we overlook because we are too consumed with the big ones that for whatever reason are just shy of our reach. Those hurdles we are all faced with seem insurmountable, and yet we will never get to a good place until we jump over them whether they be our insecurities, trust issues, or simply having an overdue conversation with a loved one. Sometimes, I think it would be easier to capture lightning in a bottle or hold on to the innocence we have as children.

Recently, I read that children laugh five thousand times a day, and adults astonishingly laugh just five times a day. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood we lose something a long the way. If I had to put my finger on it, and sum it up in a word that word would be wonder. If a person could find a way to capture a baby's smell, and bottle it then there would be no question that this hypothetical person would become a millionaire. What a funny paradox, if someone could become a millionaire by bottling up something as priceless as a baby's smell or a child's wonder!

I feel like I have grown up by leaps and bounds this year, no longer a child with child-like thinking or a teenager filled with angst, but an adult dealing with all the things that being an adult entails. Scary thought! I am excited about what the future holds: celebrating the last year of my twenties, and if God wills giving birth to another decade of my life.

There will never be a time in any of our lives when we have it all. Our lives were not designed that way. The author of the Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren once said, "Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others."

Maybe just maybe there are some good things to growing up after all. If we are paying attention, somewhere along the way we might just learn that it is not all about us. We might just learn a valuable lesson or two about how to be less selfish. No matter how hard we try some things will elude us. I can accept not always having answers because as a writer that is what keeps things interesting- that elusive something. We will all have triumphs and losses. Sadly, sometimes we waste years looking at a closed door allowing life to pass us by, and if we had moved on sooner we might just have that something that has eluded us. Just when we think we have taken two steps forward, something could occur that will make us take three steps back or shake our faith in God, humanity, and even ourselves. The trick is to stay tenacious, and not let any minor setback derail our vision. We all have in common the desire to reach for that elusive something no matter what it may be living through all of the breaths, smiles, and tears of our lives.