Peaceful

When We Ignore The Red Flags

by M.C. Greene July 7, 2022

written by M.C. Greene

It’s the first week in July, and we are halfway through our summer break. This week it finally feels like we’re on vacation. The month of June was filled with traveling from place to place and one football tournament after another, and The Greatest Kid On The Planet is tired. So is his mom. But, today, we are relaxing by the shore in one of our favorite places with some of our favorite people. The ocean is quiet this morning, and it looks lazy, as if reluctant to make too much effort in the early morning sun. But I know, soon enough, the tide will awaken, and we will spend the afternoon hours floating in the waves. It’s a break The Greatest Kid really needs for, in just a matter of days, he will be back on the football field. He is learning life doesn’t get easier as you get older and start chasing your dreams. I find myself clinging to these moments as I watch him growing into the man he is to become. I know the days of long, lazy summer vacations are over, at least for the time being, and while I miss those days, I would never trade away where we are now. I know the best is yet to come.

As I’m sitting here searching the ocean for answers, I’m contemplating a conversation I had a short time ago with a young woman named Jayna. When Jayna first wrote to me, she had just ended a two year long relationship.

Jayna had read my previous post about letting go and moving past the pain, and she said that was where she currently was. And then she said something curious.

“I don’t know why I held on for so long when I knew from the beginning it wasn’t right.”

I asked Jayna what she meant, and she answered that, for a long time, she’d thought, or, at least, she’d convinced herself, that it could and would get better. But it never did.

“I had this perfect picture in my mind, and I kept hoping for that. In the end, it was just a disaster, and I feel like I wasted two years of my life. I should have left sooner.”

I wonder how many of us wind up saying those same words at some point. And I wonder, why do we do it? Why do we stay even when it doesn’t feel right?

Hindsight, they say, is twenty-twenty. But is it truly all hindsight? Or do we own some of it from the start?

One thing I think is true for all of us is that we all want to be loved and to feel affection, and to experience a genuine connection with another person. We’re wired for it. We’re wired for connection and communication, and we all desire and deserve to be heard and seen and valued and understood.

But I also think that, sometimes, we want it so badly we ignore what’s right in front of us, and we pretend we don’t see what we see.

July 7, 2022

When We Hold On To The Hurt

by M.C. Greene April 25, 2022

written by M.C. Greene

New beginnings have been on my mind lately as I’ve watched the maple and cherry trees around town bloom into color. Spring has been a fickle visitor this year, delighting us with its presence only to disappear unceremoniously. Or perhaps it’s that winter has been reluctant to let go and allow a new season to settle in.

This feeling of being stuck in the middle has brought to mind conversations I’ve had of late on the subject of letting go. Like the beginning of a new year, the arrival of spring fills us with hope and anticipation. Watching the colors and blooms emerge all around leaves us with the feeling that something new is in the air.

But for many of us, starting something new means letting go of what’s behind us. And, so often, this is where we lose our way. How do we let go and move forward when the past is still so much a part of us? When letting go feels like losing a part of who we are?

Letting go and moving on is one of the hardest things we may ever have to do. But I have to wonder sometimes, why do we hold on when all that’s left of the past is pain and sorrow, and even, sometimes, anger and regret?

Often, letting go means letting go of hope, the hope that change is still possible, that something can and will still be what we wish with all of our heart for it to be. It can also mean letting go of something we know is gone forever, something that, perhaps, was a part of our heart and soul for so long. How do we move forward when we don’t know who we are without what we’ve lost?

April 25, 2022

Being Well

Where Is Your Sign?

by M.C. Greene February 18, 2022

written by M.C. Greene

It’s the middle of February, and, here in Georgia, I find myself regularly gazing out my window searching for signs of an early spring. Days like today give me hope. The sky is a clear blue and the air feels like the promise of something soon to come. I won’t even lament that we’re almost two months into the year. Both The Greatest Kid On The Planet and I celebrated our birthday in January, and that means it was a month of family, friends, and festivities.

Over the past weeks, I’ve been conversing with a great guy named Geoff. Geoff lives in the Northeast, in one of those wintery, cold weather places. When I first heard from Geoff, he told me he’d read my post from last summer about opening new doors. To me, last summer seems like forever ago for all that has transpired since. But I do remember writing those words and where I was when I wrote them. The Greatest Kid and I were at the beginning of a new adventure.

Geoff told me he’s read that post over and over, and he keeps coming back to something I said. Last summer, I wrote that I believe we’re supposed to keep moving, and that, sometimes, the place we thought we would stay is really just another step toward where we’re supposed to go. I also said I’ve come to believe the Universe knows better than I do where I’m supposed to be.

Geoff, like me, believes the Universe brings you guidance when you ask for it. I was intrigued and inspired hearing about his faith and conviction that answers always come when he needs them, and they always lead him in the right direction. This, Geoff said, is why he has believed for a long time that he would find a way out of his current circumstance to a place of peace and happiness.

February 18, 2022

Being Well Journal

New Doors

by M.C. Greene July 20, 2021

written by M.C. Greene

It’s the middle of summer, and, here in the South, the sun is high in the sky, stretching our days. Balmy mornings give in to late afternoon showers and the smell of freshly fallen rain on the summer grass.

In our home, The Greatest Kid On The Planet is contemplating a new adventure that is quickly approaching. It seems like only yesterday when I was writing about his first day of middle school, and, just a short time ago, we celebrated his last. He’s officially a high school freshman now, and I can barely type those words. Where did the years go? So many are asking this same question as our children begin preparing for what lies ahead, even while holding tightly to the quickly passing days of summer.

For so many of us, after a year marked by loss and uncertainty, life is slowly returning to normal, and we are heading into the second half of this year with a sense of relief and anticipation. But, for others of us, nothing is the same anymore. The new year brought about changes and challenges we weren’t anticipating much less prepared for, and we find ourselves feeling lost and wondering where to begin.

It’s a question I’ve heard from so many since the beginning of the year. How do you start over when everything looks different?

These are the things I have been pondering over the last several weeks as I’ve found myself doing something I’ve done before. I’m packing and purging. I’m wondering through my house putting things into boxes, some that will go with us and some that will go to charity and Goodwill and other places, and it all feels so familiar. I’ve done this many times before, and the last time wasn’t so many years ago.

If you’ve been following along throughout the years, then you know The Greatest Kid finds his passion on the football field and has since he was eight years old. His love for that game has never waned. It’s only grown along with him. He has a vision for himself in his mind, and it’s one he sees clearly, and it has taken us down many roads and to so many places. And it is that vision that is, again, leading us to a new place away from where we are now.

July 20, 2021

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