Tuesday, April 12, 2011

She's a little runaway

image from mycatwalk.com
Perspective is an interesting thing, don't you think?  I mean, I'm talking way beyond the half-full vs. half empty thing.  I'm thinking instead about how one's viewpoint on a given situation, when shared, can provide a new understanding of the state of affairs (ha!) another is experiencing.  Case in point: the other night while enjoying dinner with the girls one of my friends mentioned the frenzied rate of speed at which I've been living my life of late.  I am in complete agreement that the pace of my life has been more than a little manic in the past 6 months or so, but I hadn't really invested much time or thought considering what prompted the acceleration.   On the infrequent occasions that I did speculate why I was suddenly inclined  to leave town far more often than in the past, I chalked it up to  new found opportunities which had appeared since I left my Saturday night job after 8 years of devoted attendance.  Maybe, though, that isn't the complete story,  at least not as far as my insightful friend is concerned.  Without hesitation, she asserted that the real reason I had been such a girl-on-the-go was because I was in effect running away from home.  Hmmmm...interesting...I hadn't really thought of it that way before. 

Although I don't consider myself to be a confrontational person, I'm not afraid to go toe-to-toe with someone when circumstances require.  The only time I've ever run away from home was as a pre-teen looking for attention.  I remember hiding in the backseat of my mother's car with a book, for hours, waiting for someone to notice my absence.  I believe I eventually, rather sheepishly, snuck out of the car as unnoticed as when I had entered the car hours earlier.  As I compare my childhood experiment of running away with my more recent attempts to get away, the contrast between the experiences seems glaring.  While my original attempt at running away was clearly a cry for someone to aknowledge my existence, my more recent foray was clearly an escape from the life I found myself living.  I wanted needed to get away.

There are enormous changes taking place in my home and I am looking around with clear eyes and optimism about what the future may hold.  I have some ideas about aspects I'd like to transform, items with which I will easily part, and some things which will leave an absence duly noted.  All of these evolving conditions require me to be present - and I'm looking forward to the process.  The runaway has come home.

No comments:

Post a Comment