Once Upon a Time

What do you know about yourself?

What are your stories?

The ones you tell yourself,

and the ones told by others.

All of us begin somewhere. 

Though I suppose the truth is that we begin more than once; 

we begin many times.

Over and over,

we start our own tales,

compose our own stories,

whether our lives are short or long.

Until at last all our beginnings come down to just one end,

and the tale of who we are is done.

This is one of my all-time favorite books.  I've read it a billion times. It was one of two books I brought with me on this trip. They told us that maybe we should bring a comfort food to have a taste of home every once in a while; I brought this book. I fell in love with it the first time I read that first paragraph. I was reading it at the beach last week and have been thinking about it lately. I've never read that paragraph and then really thought about it for myself, but this time I did.

What do I know about myself?

What are my stories?

What stories do I tell myself about myself?

What stories do I allow others to tell to me? About me?

What times in my life have I decided to start over?

How is my tale coming along?

If my beginnings were to come to an end today,

would I be happy with that end?

Sometimes it's hard for me to think about good qualities I have, but I've been trying to do that since I read this last week at the beach.  I also read a quote last week that said,

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself 

instead of a second-rate version of somebody else," 

(Judy Garland)

and decided to make that my goal. Thinking about these questions have helped me do that, I think. I have still a ways to go before I'll be at the desired end for my beginnings, but I like the way my tale is coming along so far.

How about you? Instead of just reading this and moving on, try reading it and applying it to you. Maybe you'll still be thinking about it a week from now like I am.