I'm back! It's been so long since I've blogged, and I can no longer ignore the directions pointing me back to here. Between simply missing writing, checking out friends' blogs, too much time on my hands in the midst of my limbo, and writing being part of my New Year's resolutions, I had to come back. Now, I know past blogs have varied between memories, thoughts, venting, and some not so great incidents documented, but we're going to shift that a bit. In writing out my resolutions on December 30th, I decided that this would be the year of positive. Too many times throughout this life of mine, I have allowed myself to snowball in the negativity and wallow in unfortunate circumstances, bad luck and poor choices. I'm done with that. Sometimes you step in poo and you can either bitch and bitch and bitch about stepping in the poo, or you can clean off your shoe and go about your day. I'm choosing to clean the poo off my shoe and enjoy that at least it shook up the monotony.
In keeping on the resolution of positive blogging, I decided that this year I wanted to really focus on my favorite things - people, places, memories, music, whatever it is that I love or have loved. I even listed a bunch of them out with my resolutions. My first entry of this new year was going to be one of those; however an unexpected comment (which still falls into that category) precedes all that I had planned for this.
I'm not even sure how it all started, but one of my roommates and I were talking last night, sharing stories as usual, and I was talking about when I lived in Flagstaff. There was laughter, eye rolling, regrets, lessons learned, and then a hunt on Facebook to reconnect with those people I wasn't already in touch with, who were such an important piece of that experience. The Flagstaff conversation continued on today when I pulled out my photo album from that time and shared more stories from back then and where they were now. And that's when Priscilla made her comment that leads to this...
"Oh Heather, I love your past lives."
I have amazing people in my life here, but I have them spread all about this country. I'm not special because of this, and this is not a new revelation. However, what her comment did make me aware of is this...I am someone who does not know what they believe about God or what happens after this life, but roots for reincarnation out of fear of boredom and a desire to make right where I did wrong in this life. l have spent so much time hoping for this that I never realized that in a sense, I've already lived many lives in this one. I've moved around a lot, had plenty of jobs in such varied areas, had amazing and unique experiences, and acquired so many amazing friendships and acquaintances in so many different places. I have had beautiful highs and dark lows, and I always get through them. I have lived so many things, both good and bad, and I'm grateful for the greatness, the oddities, the pitfalls, the times of calm, the times of hilarity, the tears, the changes, and that I am blessed with few good-byes, but plenty of "see you laters".
So with that, I give you my past lives.
I WAS...
A painfully shy child
Paralyzed for a time
A mermaid in the pool
An Honor Roll student
A survivor of sickness, fears, trials and tribulations
A Mormon for 16 years
A horrible party girl
The one who got kicked out of school
The one who came back
A pilot for an afternoon
A student of Oceanography
An actress many times
A maker of bubbles
A holder of the Boa
An "adoptive" granddaughter
A mess
The risk taker
A traveler
The first one to leave
A witness to the famous and their craziness
The first to come back
The first one to leave again
The first one to eventually leave 4 times and come back 3
A fiancé...a couple of times
A married woman...thank god, only once
A divorcee
A theatre chick
The old one in a college town living like she was much younger
A woman who helped save a newborn calf
A Camel girl
The musicians girlfriend
A babysitter of children...and boyfriends
The one who made life decisions a bit too spontaneously
A girl of flings
A woman who fell in love too easily
A learner of life
A hiker
A camper
A lover of nature and the religion of the outdoors
The girl with bizarre stories
A lover of inappropriate humor
One who finally stayed and sat still
A woman who struggled with herself and her family
The believer that people are generally good
The one who still kind of thinks she's invincible
The one who also realizes she's probably more naive than invincible
A writer
A singer
A pianist, violinist and a French horn player...okay, I prefer French Hornet.
A vagabond
A granola
A vegetarian
A carnivore
A pescatarian
A nuisance
A Westerner
A Southwesterner
A Southerner
A loudmouth
A good friend
A struggling daughter and sister
A bridesmaid time and time again
A smoker
A non-smoker
A liberal
A spy
A wino
The getaway car (in only legal endeavors)
A problem child
A saintly child
A neat freak
A mutant
A student of massage
A student of yoga
A student of Buddhism
A fearer of dolls and dying naked
A stunt woman
A homeowner
A hermit
The woman who yelled at you to "slow down"
A pet owner
A pushover for my dog
And a lover of all things pajamas and slippers
I am grateful for all those that are part of my life now and for those that are the ghosts of my past. It's been an interesting set of past lives, and I can't wait to add to the list!
