Being me

In every life there is a theme that runs from beginning to end.

It may be loud and clear, blatantly out there for everyone to see from the get go.  Or, it may be as subtle as the scent of honeysuckle far down the mountain, but whatever it is, I am meant to follow it.

Sometimes a parent just puts their child in the car and they whiz off into a future carved out of generations of experience.  Sometimes people need to be nudged along a yellow brick road.  And sometimes it is only a deer path in the woods, hidden by flowers and full of quicksand in unlikely places, but wherever it is I have to go if it is my way.

I've always heard that I choose my own path, but that's not really true.  I only choose the way I choose to travel it.  The path itself is part of my DNA.  I can no more be a deer than a lion can be a human.

Unlike the deer and the lion, I can choose to be something I was never meant to be and that is the surest road to disaster that I can think of.

That mythical deer in the headlights is a tragic figure and so is an elephant in a china shop.  A barrel of monkeys is really no fun at all, they are only chattering and shrieking trying to get out.  And a human being living a life that makes them miserable is a crime against nature.

Learning who I am and cherishing it so that I am free to follow my own path is one of life's biggest challenges.  I guess that's why human beings live so long.  Unlike the deer and the lion we have lots of choices and most of us are a bit baffled by it.  It can take a long time to be me.