Being a grown up is not a destination. You don't suddenly wake up one morning and know that you are grown up. It is a process, always we are growing up. It is journey fraught with obstacles, distractions and detours. The biggest danger along the way seems to be the rabbit holes.
Rabbit holes call out your name and then whisper of your darkest fear. The trouble is, you catch a hint of its voice on the wind and you lean in closer to hear more clearly. Before you know it you have tumbled down into the inky void. As you fall you can hear the voice. "You won't ever succeed. You are wasting your time. No one will ever love you." You get the drift. Unfortunately, as you fall you can gather speed. The voice becomes louder. However, it also becomes more ridiculous. "I am lonely," turns into "I am going to die alone having fallen off a chair changing the light bulb in the upper hallway. I am going to tumble down the stairs, break my neck, and when they find me six weeks later, the dogs will have licked what is left of me clean down to my bones." Really?
There are certainly pity parties on the descent into the rabbit hole. The saving grace is that after a good wallow, it starts to become silly. When you realize what nonsense is spouting out of your mouth, the laughter comes. It is what brings you back to the surface, to the light.
The path of growing up is littered with rabbit holes. To think that you can avoid them is naive. They serve their purpose; to humble you and to remind you how far you have traveled. If you are wise and alert, you can see them coming and perhaps just make do with sticking your head in instead of jumping right on down. A measure of growing up is the ability to recognize when you have tripped into a rabbit hole and pull yourself back up before you hit the bottom.
Just for the record, some weeks are filled with more than their share of the pesky things. Watch out! You are growing up!
Rabbit holes call out your name and then whisper of your darkest fear. The trouble is, you catch a hint of its voice on the wind and you lean in closer to hear more clearly. Before you know it you have tumbled down into the inky void. As you fall you can hear the voice. "You won't ever succeed. You are wasting your time. No one will ever love you." You get the drift. Unfortunately, as you fall you can gather speed. The voice becomes louder. However, it also becomes more ridiculous. "I am lonely," turns into "I am going to die alone having fallen off a chair changing the light bulb in the upper hallway. I am going to tumble down the stairs, break my neck, and when they find me six weeks later, the dogs will have licked what is left of me clean down to my bones." Really?
There are certainly pity parties on the descent into the rabbit hole. The saving grace is that after a good wallow, it starts to become silly. When you realize what nonsense is spouting out of your mouth, the laughter comes. It is what brings you back to the surface, to the light.
The path of growing up is littered with rabbit holes. To think that you can avoid them is naive. They serve their purpose; to humble you and to remind you how far you have traveled. If you are wise and alert, you can see them coming and perhaps just make do with sticking your head in instead of jumping right on down. A measure of growing up is the ability to recognize when you have tripped into a rabbit hole and pull yourself back up before you hit the bottom.
Just for the record, some weeks are filled with more than their share of the pesky things. Watch out! You are growing up!
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