reborn and rise again...

One of the benefits of watching the years go past in your life is the ability to look back and see where you screwed up.

If you look back often enough, with a discerning eye and an open heart, you can often self-correct along the way. Or at the very least, you can learn from your screw-ups and become a bit wiser and stronger in other areas of your life.

You probably know from your own life experiences that mistakes are painful but very useful ways of learning. However, there are some life mistakes, that if avoided in the first place, will save you a whole load of heartache and misdirection.Looking back a few years, I can see how much I’ve changed. I almost haven’t noticed the change, because it sneaks up on me, until it’s impossible to ignore.
It’s like when you were a kid. You got taller, but you didn’t notice until you stood up against the wall.
The same holds true for life changes.
You are constantly changing, but it’s hard to notice until it slaps you in the face with a leather glove.
Old pains, fears, and negative emotions can vanish and be replaced by something more useful.

A change that like flipping a switch inside where all of a sudden you begin to see things differently. You have a new power to live a different way of life. It happens when there’s a temptation that’s overwhelming you and you feel like it’s something that’s going to overwhelm you the rest of your life. But one day something happens in your heart. All of a sudden, you realize that you can say NO to that temptation.
A change that you have been looking at the world through bitter, ungrateful eyes for quite a while, but someday, something happens. A change can come maybe when you’re depressed and you’re feeling hopeless and you’ve felt that way for a long, long time.
Then one day you wake up and you realize, “I’ve turned the corner. I don’t know what happened but I’ve turned the corner and all of a sudden I feel hopeful again.”
Or it might be that you feel angry at someone. One day you wake up and you realize, “I don’t know what happened but I think I can let that go now. I think I can forgive them.”

I've learned that nobody gets through life without losing someone they love, someone they need, or something they thought was meant to be. But it is these losses that make us stronger and eventually move us toward future opportunities for growth and happiness. Sometimes we have to die a little on the inside first in order to be reborn and rise again as a stronger, smarter version of ourselves.