Are You Prepared?

I'm not talking about the end of the world or anything that cryptic, although I'm prepared for that too. I'm talking about all your life experiences preparing you for future experiences. It seems to me that all the things I've lived through thus far is building me up to strengthen me for things coming after.

When I'm in a group, or in the classroom, or even in a message board, sometimes I don't share everything. I am a person of a thousand stories. You mention a topic and I have a story to relate. I realized early on though, not everyone wants to hear your stories. I didn't want to be that person that "one ups" everyone else. We all know that person. No matter how bad your day, she has worse. No matter how great your news, she has better. I didn't want to be that person, so sometimes I just don't share.

I do however, have a story for everything. I was spending the night at a girlfriends in Jr. High when someone tried to break into her house. Her dad held a gun to the guys head and told him to yell to his friends that ran behind the house, then for them all to get he hell out of here. What a thing for a kid to witness. I've killed a chicken, I've birthed a kitten, I've stepped on a rotting cat. Not the usual things a kid might have seen or done. I've kicked a boy in the eye, I've kicked a man in the chest, I've split open three different boy/men's heads in different ways. I even split a mans lip by punching him in the face.  I am not even a violent person. Life just seems to happen so that I have been able to protect myself.

Seriously, a story for everything. I look at it as my weird stories and happenings as preparing me. I don't know for sure what is coming but I know now, what ever it is I can handle it. Looking back at all the pain I've endured, the emotional stress I've survived, the things I've done to look back on...... wow. Even looking at the illnesses I've had. I've had asthma, cured, hypoglycemia, cured, cracked my head open, survived that without stitches. I still have a bald spot from not getting my head sewed up, but I survived having alcohol and peroxide poured over my head. OUCH! I've had laser surgery with no anaesthesia, I've woken up while they were putting the breathing tube into my throat during surgery, I had pins pulled out of my foot with out anaesthesia. Everyone of these I had a doctor and/or nurse ask me, "Didn't that hurt?!" Uh.. YEAH! but I didn't really have a choice, or didn't think I did.

Now I look at my daughter and I am completely confused by my reactions to her. My boys are boys, and they are wonderfully healthy. I see my daughter going down my same path that I did. I have very mixed feelings about that. She is the one that came to me and told me she talks to "spirits" all the time. I didn't give her that word, she came up with that. I have been very careful not to put ideas into their heads. They need to know about their gifts, not imagine them from mine. She has had painful events in her short life. Ecoli at 3 months, eye surgery at 6 months, constant vomiting starting at 4 years, now her CVS (cyclic vomiting syndrome) she has severe stomach pain, blurred vision, sensitive hearing and moodiness. She actually deals with it very well. She is becoming so mature for only 6. I worry, but at the same time I  believe she may just be taking her journey. All I can do is support her on that journey. Be here for her when she needs someone to hold her up. And wonder, what is this preparing her for in the furture.