Two Years' Change

Life is strange. You don't have to live very long before you realize this.

Think about it--two years ago, could you imagine where you were going to be this year? Could you possibly imagine what experiences you were going to have? How different you would look? Could you imagine the people you were going to meet? Could you imagine what songs you would decide you would love? Could you see what friends you were going to make? Did you know which friends you would lose? Keep? Could you imagine the feelings you were going to feel? Despair, happiness, loneliness, excitement, anxiety, love, confusion, pain, joy, humor? Could you envision the scenes where you would laugh so hard that your stomach would ache for days? Did you imagine what people you would like? Did you know what mistakes you would make? Did you know what you would regret the most? Did you realize what would embarrass you the most? Could you imagine how your personality would change? Did you imagine what experiences your friends would have? Could you imagine what you would be involved with? Could you imagine what you would learn? What you would have to unlearn and start over? Could you imagine the conversations you would have? Did you image the relationships you would and would not develop? Could you imagine what your friends would go through? Did you see what you would be proud of yourself for doing? Did you understand that you would feel younger now than you did two years ago, but more mature? Could you... Did you... Could you... Did you....? Where did you think you were going to be? Where are you now?

Maybe it is just me. I am at that stage of life. But... I swear...

Life will be the death of me.

That's the other funny thing; life always ends in death. Everything has an end. Or does it?

All that change you have experienced in the last two years, will it ever leave?

Can you imagine two years from now?

Two years is a long time, yet a very short time. How... how... How did so much change around me? How did I change so much?

...Why does so much change? But you almost have to encourage the change by continuing the hike and walking forward through the valleys and to the tops of mountains. But! I think I'm getting stronger. I think everyone is.

I can't help but know that there is Someone at the head of this journey, and I trust my Father in Heaven. I can see his hand in my life from what I have learned and experienced. I know he is there. I... just don't know the overall result yet. And that's okay. I'm going to keep hiking, even if my feet ache and bleed and I feel exhausted. Everything will turn out.