"Maybe the past is like an anchor holding us back. Maybe you have to let go of who you were to become who you will be.”
Candace Bushnell (spoken by the character Carrie Bradshaw in Sex in the City)
I am sitting on the edge of a transition I have been looking forward to and running shrieking from for months or possible even for years.
A week from tomorrow Emma and I will turn Katherine’s car east and head toward the Philadelphia area where my youngest daughter will be attending Arcadia University. I am thrilled and I am tormented.
The school itself is a great fit for her, the community is a fabulous place and she is a train ride into Philadelphia, a city I have loved since first visit.
I keep remembering when I held her when she was less than twenty-hours old. Together we looked out over an empty field facing Cal State University, Bakersfield from the second story window as the sun rose on August 20. I held my dear one tiny-cheek-to-Mommy-cheek and I said aloud to her, “I will always be here for you.”
My intellect knows that even separated by a lot of miles, that promise will still hold. In fact, the separation is actually one of the most potent ways of continuing to both be there for her and to let go so that she will be able to become who she is meant to be and I will continue to become more of who I am meant to be.
She will still be “Julie’s daughter” and I will continue to be “Emma’s Mommy” and we will breathe more deeply into our selves. We will reflect who we have always been meant to become, the one the sunlight saw as she smiled at us that morning eighteen years ago.
Changes such as this are not, by nature, neat and tidy. For this reason, I am carrying these words from Rumi close to my heart. I thought I would add them here, too, so that you might gain value from them as well.
“This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.”
~Rumi
This is another blog post borne from the encouragement of "That's what she said," an inspiring blog link up/series hosted by Dean and Courtney that uses the words of women as inspiration for blog posts.
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in September 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot
Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)
Follow on Instagram And naturally, on Pinterest, too!
© 2015
Recent Comments