Growing Into Yourself

“I know who you were.  I know who you are.  I know who you aspire to be.”  A friend said that to me recently, and it really struck a chord.

Up until a few years ago, although I had a few dreams left unfulfilled, I thought I was where I was supposed to be.  Who I was supposed to be.  Doing what I was supposed to do.  I was wrong.  Although I believe that every day presents a new opportunity for learning and growth, I also believed, albeit mistakenly, that perhaps I had reached my full potential.  Done growing up.  Done achieving everything I was to achieve.  Again, wrong.

We are evolving every day of our lives, growing into a new person, whether they be through big life-altering changes or tiny little ones.  I am not the same person I was 20 years ago.  Ten years ago.  Not even two years ago.  The Cate Version 2008 is worlds’ apart from who I am now.  And really, thank goodness.

Now, my insides surge with new ideas, new dreams, new ambitions, new hopes.  Although quite cliched, each day really is a clean slate, an opportunity to begin anew to make better, make different, make an impression.  To live with joy, with purpose, with conviction, with gratitude.

I carefully watch my kids’ little faces, so bright and unmarked, so full of promise and hope, and know that every day, every decision I make impacts them.  Whether it’s the choices I make for their lunch box to putting warm pajamas on their little bodies, full of love, fresh from the dryer.  They are continually growing, changing, evolving every day, why shouldn’t we be doing the same?

And we are.  I didn’t so much know it before.  But I do now.

“Never mind searching for who you are. Search for the person you aspire to be.” ~Robert Brault
And speaking of being filled with joy, I’m going to leave you with a few things that are filling me today, both big and small:

• Michael Grimm, a self-described 30-year-old “boy from Mississippi” who won America’s Got Talent.  I didn’t watch the show, but he just took top prize.  With his soulful, honest voice, it’s no wonder.  What does he want to do with the prize money?  Buy his grandparents (who raised him) a home, because they lost everything in Hurricane Katrina.  Beauty from the inside out.
• Vitamins for children a world away.  I practically hung on every word when Meg described her mission trip to Africa (all posts are here, just scroll), and I would love to do the same thing.  In the meantime, she’s collecting vitamins to send to the children there.  Children who have one egg a week as their entire ration of protein.  It seems perfect timing that today, after a quick trip to Costco to replenish our own supply of Vitamin C, I found that they repackaged their vitamins so now you’re getting two bottles of vitamins, instead of one.  And then I came home to read Meg’s post on the need for vitamins and how we can help.  I bet you know where the second bottle is going.
• Those gloves pictured at the top of this post.  You already know rainbows make me happy.  These gloves were a two-pack for ninety cents at Target.  While I can hardly bear to think of the cold weather months ahead where I’ll be needing these, I couldn’t resist a rainbow’d pair to replace my holey gloves from last year.

• This little fresh-from-bath wet head at dinner tonight that couldn’t get enough of the cucumbers from the farmer’s market and homemade dipping sauce.
• And Nick, who loves his new school so much that today, he stood perched at the front door, trying to leave to catch the bus at 7:10 am. A full twenty minutes before the bus actually comes.
• The fact that I have no assignments due tomorrow, so I can actually hit the sack before midnight.  First time in I don’t know how long.  This mama’s tired.
• A weekend ahead full of friendships. Dinner tomorrow with The Neighbors.  Dinner on Sunday with friends who are also celebrating new and improved versions of themselves.  And many moments in between celebrating my littles and the mundane.

Have an awesome weekend … relishing in the mundane, the monumental and everything in the middle. And most importantly, relishing the version you are today, and the version you will be tomorrow.  Cheers!