You may remember the Miranda Lambert song from a few years back titled, “The House That Built Me.” It’s the story of a woman who goes back to her childhood house takes a cathartic journey down memory lane. There’s a reason this song speaks to all of us. It’s not just sentimentality. There’s something in us that knows there’s something back there for us.
Crazy as it is, the rush of our day-to-day lives can cause to slowly drift away from ourselves. It’s not noticeable over a day or a month or a year. Over a decade or two, though, we find ourselves a long way from those things, places, and people that made us us.
Our move back to Kansas has made me quite reflective. Not only did we move back, but right now we’re living in a part of the metro where I grew up and came of age.
I’ve caught myself listening to 80s music, watching old Nebraska Cornhusker football games (back when they were always a threat to win it all) on YouTube, and contemplating the aging of neighborhoods I remember as new. It’s as though I’m reaching back for something.
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my life today and I think I’ve been pretty conscious about directing in ways that are in line with why I’m here. Still, there are nuggets about who we are that we leave along the path. Aspects of that are more truly us and yet get lost in the shuffle.
It’s healing, insightful, and beneficial to sometimes go back, pick them up, and reincorporate them into what we’re doing now. There’s a lot of us back there before we had worries, bills, and the rush of life. There’s a you back there unencumbered by expectations and self-doubt. There’s a you back there that was living a little closer to who you came here to be.
It’s worth it, once in a while, to take a trip down memory lane and mine the pieces of you; pieces you may have even forgotten. Rediscovering that you allows you to build a future made both on your current accomplishments and on that long-lost authentic you.
The struggle is real, my friends, but so are the rewards of the journey. You, every one of you, are amazing!
Ray
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