Don't Be Trippin'

The things I used to trip on, I step over now.

 This is one of those bits of truth that becomes easier to embrace as age softens the sharp edges (and sharp opinions) that youth tends to inspire.

 As the mother of two young adults I often watch both of them become quite spirited (a.k.a. ticked off) about things that I, as an adult, know better than to rage against. I try not to fan their flames but I also don’t admonish their feelings. There is a part of me that knows that throwing ourselves up against things in our youth, is one of the ways we figure out what is really important to us. It is not a gentle process but it is a formative part of learning who we are.

Eventually we learn that trying to change the things that we cannot control is the very thing that makes us trip. Once we figure this out- that is when we learn how to step over…. We become comfortable with the fact that not everyone will like us, we accept our life for how it is instead of how we thought it was going to be, we apologize when we are wrong, and we stay quiet when we are right.

Once we have figured these simple things out, the tripping stops and the stepping over starts.