Friday, December 10, 2010

reclaiming via rediscovery.

R E C L A I M I N G.

A friend once said that she was "reclaiming herself." I wasn't exactly sure, at the time, what that phrase meant.

...oh, Lord - am I ever now.

I've been lost, these past months, in the hazy shoulds and foggy need-tos and murky why-don't-yous of others. These advisers undoubtedly meant well, but my convictions - once a sort of beacon lighting the way ahead - were all but obscured by frustration borne of incongruence between belief and action. In the process, this girl's life became something increasingly unrecognizable - hence the need for a bit of reclaiming.

Websters' online dictionary defines reclaim as a recalling from wrong or improper conduct [as in reformation] or a restoring to a previous natural state. When personally applied, each of these re- words conveys the importance of a conscious awareness of and attention to past experiences - those that have formed us, for better or worse - in any attempt at forward motion.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said it well: "If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control."

[Side note: MLK definitely gets an invite to my fantasy dinner party. Also, I'm not sure what it means that "all reality has spiritual control." Let's just run with it, shall we?]

So, I'm going back. I'll revisit the ideas that excited and invigorated me as a kid and a teenager and a college student. I'll pick up those hobbies that, for one reason or another, I set down. And I'll start recording my memories (thanks to Don Miller & his excellent book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, for the idea!) as I recall them - for what are we, if not a fantastic and messy conglomeration of our experiences?

Yep - it's time for R E D I S C O V E R Y.

This is gonna be good, y'all.

1 comment:

Rachel Perry said...

Whoa. Me too! Good luck in your journey!