Brand New

Nothing feels as good as a brand new pair of sneakers.  You walk different, you feel different and you even feel like you look different.








I've taken a little more than a year off from writing a daily blog/journal and I will be honest....my walk is different; I feel different and I even look a bit different.  My laugh lines around my eyes are more defined and I'm looking more tired.  We're always our worst critics.  It's not a bad thing - it's just a thing.








With summer vacation here, I've decided to make a new blog, with a new look, and it may even feel a little different.  It's a way to continue to write while on this journey and a challenge to capture the MOMents that come my way.








For the last year, I have been diligent in my quest to make sense of the past.  To try and make sense of things that have surfaced and/or resurfaced in my grown-up Self and by doing so, it has forced me to take a walk back in time - look in the rearview mirror of life and reflect, process, and muddle through the fragments to bring them to the here and now. 








I'm convicted of looking ahead at times and missing the moments that come my way.  The same conviction comes when I'm reflecting on the past and it defines what the present outcome will be, thus losing out on the possibility of having a different Moment in my grown-up life.  I've been caught thinking that next school year will be better or maybe next week will be better and while that's not all bad, I've lost out on the here & now MOMents.








This whole process is Brand New for me.  Just like walking into Tindells Shoe Store in Postville, Iowa, and eyeing a new pair of Nike shoes....the blue ones with the light blue swoosh.  I know I will try this process on and sometimes the shoe won't fit....it may pinch a little....make me feel uncomfortable and awkward, but eventually after trying this process on of Living In the MOMents, I believe I will find this process to fit right in and I will be able to balance the past, the present and the future all at once and still be aware of the here and the now.....all the while sporting a brand new pair of Nike tennies from the '80's.