remember who you wanted to be

Remember who you wanted to be.

She read it off the bumper sticker on the car in front of her. Sitting at a stoplight a few minutes later, she googled it from her phone in an attempt to find out who had offered the world this little piece of wisdom. She couldn’t find an attribution for the quote. I suppose it really doesn't matter who said it/wrote it/came up with it/whatever, she thought, that's not really the point.

The point was remembering who she'd wanted to be. Who she'd wanted to be when? Yesterday? Last year? Five years ago? Longer? 

To some extent, she realized, she was that person, but in other respects, she wasn't. But more importantly, she certainly couldn't have anticipated the path she'd taken to get to there - no one but God could have anticipated that. The road she'd taken was different than what she'd expected. Just because it was different didn't mean it was bad, though - and she wasn't the one who'd been in control of it. The path had been less linear than the one she'd hoped for, but so far, the outcome had been just fine. She found herself realizing that indeed, though she wasn't precisely the person she'd wanted to be, that was okay. She was who she needed to be, and that was more important. 

Yeah, she thought, I remember who I wanted to be, and how I thought I'd get there. For better or for worse, I had it wrong. I told God my plans, and he laughed at them. 

Then he gave me something better. 

Sometimes we have to take unanticipated paths - and sometimes even very hard ones - to find the destinations along our way. 

+Peace, and all good.