Life In Bullet Points
June 29th, 2009
I recently reconnected with an old childhood friend on Facebook. My girl from the hood (we just called ourselves neighbors back then) was trying to piece together the last 30 years of my life. She’d gathered some snippets here and there, but her timeline was messed up. So I wrote back to her and managed to fit the last 3 decades of my life in about 10 bullet points! No fluff, just dates, places I’ve lived and major life events (you know, educational achievements, marriages, divorces, that sort of thing). My major life events fit into 10 bullet points, no kidding.
I finished my message and wondered when and how I had become so detached from the events of my life that, at the time, seemed so darned important. So darned defining. So darned dramatic…especially the divorce part, right? Then I realized that I have such a peaceful relationship with my past now that I can relate to it as what I did and what happened. Not who I
was or why I made those choices…or “What the heck was I thinking?”
My life has been a series of events, people and places that I moved through, for better or worse. It doesn’t do me any good to judge those choices now. I feel no shame or regret. What good would it do, really? I don’t have a time machine to step into and go back and change the past. Do you?
I am who I am today, in this present moment. Just trying to be better than yesterday. Hoping that all the lessons I’ve learned along the way have stuck just enough to create a better me. So don’t ask me to go into detail about my personal history. The details just don’t matter like they did at the time. They were just the stepping stones that took me back and forth across the stream of life. Now that I’m older, I’d rather just jump into the stream and go with the flow. (I’m so corny, I can barely stand myself).
Can you bullet point the last 10, 20, 30, 40 years of your life? Give it a try. It’s an interesting exercise. You’ll realize that all that earth-shattering stuff you went through didn’t actually shatter the earth. We’re still here!
Life is good! Namaste. –Lori
Hi Lori – I love your point that the past events of our life are really just … well, the past. The choices we can make right now are really far more important. Great article!
Blessings,
Andrea
Wow…what a powerful message you have here. It had not struck me to bullet point the last few years, but it is something I do want to give a try. It brings into perspective the little things we thought were so important really are not. Great message here.
I sure like this post; it makes sense to me. It reminds me that we are powerless to change the past and that we must detach from our past as much as our future. Hard things to practice. But I have a “but” to your last line. I know that what’s happened to me in life hasn’t shattered the earth. It’s just shattered me. Maybe that was the point of it all. I’ve come out on the other side of all my “bullet point” events somehow different, and in a way that I wouldn’t want to give up. But how am I different? Well … maybe it’s just that I’m just more detached now!
Steve
Steve – Thanks for your very genuine comment. I hope there’s peace in the present for you. Sounds like you’re a survivor and the fact that you’re still here to pick up the shattered pieces is definitely a good sign.
Peace,
Lori