Things come back around

Today I'm watching a Greys Anatomy rerun after painting ornaments with Gabe and its the episode with the quote "If today you become frightened instead become inspired", and I thought I LOVE this quote.  I have loved it since I heard it the first time. 

So I thought about it again and I thought that quote is important.  That plus a post about arriving in Holland made me want to write about it again. 

Here is the Holland piece:



c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

I find that quotes tend to pop up right about the time I need them, just like Mish had happen to her recently too! So while this quote is about having a child that's different than the one you envisioned I find it works for most things in life that come up and DRASTICALLY change your destination ideas.  I know that I've posted about the Greys Anatomy post before, here, among other quotes that inspire me.  So sometimes we don't end up where we expect to, and sometimes the road is tough, and sometimes we don't even get to the destination we expected to, but what I have learned is that most places are nice places even if they aren't what we expect.  I can find a way to live in many places, I can find ways to THRIVE in places I didn't expect.  When I am scared, tired, unsure, or just plan done I remember many of these quotes and I keep going.  I just keep going.  JUST KEEP GOING!

I think that quotes showing up when you need them, be them bible verses, from a movie or a show, or a story from someone, or a post on a forum, they come up when you need them most. 

Thoughts to live by....

"Today, if you become frightened, instead become inspired."

"Don't think about HOW you are going to do this, think about WHY you are going to do this"

‘I used to think it was a terrible thing that life was so unfair. Then I thought, 'what if life *were* fair, and all of the terrible things that happen to us came because we really deserved them?' Now I take great comfort in the general unfairness and hostility of the universe.’
- Marcus Cole, from Babylon 5 (1994-1998)

These quotes have been rambling around for me. The first one from last night's Grey's Anatomy, the second from someone when I was worried about how I was going to juggle things for school and the third about life in general.

The first quote reminds me that when we're scared we often become paralyzed by the fear instead of being inspired to find a way around the fear. Sometimes we just need to DO and not think so much.

The second one reminds me that sometimes the how sucks and it's hard but the why is the important part. The why is for me, for my family for my life. I know WHY I'm doing this and I have to keep that in mind each and every day that I feel stuck.

The third reminds me that sometimes things just happen and no one is to blame and nothing is fair.

So I vow to be inspired and remember the why in life even when things are tough and know that sometimes it's hard and that you just have to push through it.

This too shall pass, yet another of my thoughts to live by.