Renewal

I had the opportunity yesterday to learn a very valuable lesson: that sometimes (perhaps often) when we ascribe reasons for someone else’s behavior, we are very much mistaken, and if we are very lucky, like I was yesterday, to see the error of our thoughts, we have a chance at renewal.

Under difficult circumstances, I anticipated seeing someone I had not seen for many years. I was uncertain how we would feel when seeing each other, but luck and love were on our side and our first glance at each other brought back all the shared experiences, the shared memories, and the fondness of a lifetime. As a practicing adult (for many years), I am embarrassed to say that I was surprised—surprised that I had attached a far different meaning to our lack of communications than actually existed. I found her as endearing and bright and funny as she had always been, and I felt a sense of loss, for all the years that had passed without seeing each other, sharing our lives, loves, and losses.

Renewal is a gift at any point in life, the opportunity to recover emotions and memories that we had as kids and young adults, and bring a new spin to them as older adults. Last night, I felt younger for awhile, and then I felt so deeply the attachments of a lifetime, the bonds of love and family and what they really mean, that I felt that I had been touched by all the generations that came before, I felt my mother whispering to me that there is nothing like family, and I know that no matter what life serves up to us, it is the relationships that we choose to cherish, that make life worth living, and each day a delight. 

The gift of Renewal can be ours any and every day, if we choose to put aside our assumptions, open our hearts to new messages, forgive ourselves for being human and frail, and let the delight of every day in.