Today I am thankful for… throwbackthursday

it reminds me that i’ve grown, i’ve progressed. it reminds me of…

• people i knew who brought me joy.
• answered and unanswered prayers.
• hard lessons and easy victories.
• clothing mistakes i shouldn’t repeat.
• being teased. braces. body issues.
• change.

so today God i am thankful for #throwbackthursday because it reminds me…

few things in life are permanent

no longer do i ride my pink huffy bike everywhere, pagers are no longer a common form of communication, i no longer get paid hourly, MTV shows more than music videos, i eat girl scout cookies instead of selling them, i no longer play badminton… and the united states is no longer a group of 13 colonies. the circumstances of life change: technology, government, finances, entertainment, etc.

and the people in your life change.

there are people from my life who aren’t here anymore. some are in heaven and others are simply living their lives without me and both of those things are ok. i can reach back into my memory, or a photo album and find times of us together. i can laugh and cry and sigh. some people are in your life for a reason or a season (or both). and i am so thankful for the friendships i had growing up and how they molded me into who i am today. even if some of us have grown apart, and others of us have grown closer together i see that is a part of life and that is ok.

#TBT reintroduces me to the people who have brought me joy, pain, answered prayers, hard lessons, getting grounded, hours of laughter and confidence. when i think back to some of the people that have had the most profound impact on how i view myself and the world, i notice some are not in my facebook friend list, or in the contacts of my phone… but they are no less important or loved than they were when they spoke into my life. (thank you martin, kim, ty and jenni.)

people can and do change. including me.

which brings me to the fact that not only do circumstances change, but people can and do change too. not always in the ways we may want them to, but that should be enough to show you change is possible.

when i didn’t think my body was growing fast enough, my retainer made me talk funny, and i made an epic fail of a hair decision to get a perm, i thought the world was ending and i’d never get out. i got teased. it sucked. but a funny thing happened. my retainer turned to braces and now i’m orthodontic free. my perm grew out. my body caught up. and someone who used to tease me apologized years later. it meant so much to me that he did. people can change.

when i was full time, working later and bringing work home every day, i had no balance. i was destroying the most important relationship in my life: my marriage. it sucked. but a funny thing happened. i made a new commitment and he helped me stick to it. my evenings were shared with my husband and not my laptop. my weekends were spent making memories not documents and emails. the work still got done. i didn’t get fired. i found joy in focusing on the most important things. people can change. i changed.

#throwbackthursday

so today God i am thankful for #throwbackthursday #TBT and any other hashtag it might go by that I seem to have missed…

because i have the opportunity to see the people and the moments that mean so much to everyone. the times when they were awkward, younger, not-photoshopped, making mistakes, making memories.

because i have the opportunity to sort through old photos to scan and relive the places i’ve traveled to, the people who molded me, the technology i no longer use… and all of it reminds me that we grow, we change, and we progress forward in some way.

so i will look back and smile, but also look forward to the progress i can’t yet see.