It's ironic how people compare their lives to a roller coaster ride. I guess that used to be the craziest ride at the fair. Now there's faster, loopier, belly wrenching rides that can make a grown man lose his lunch. I guess it doesn't sound as good to say, "My life has been like the Colossus or maybe the Cliffhanger!"Even as I was looking for a picture of a roller coaster to put on my blog, there were many interpretations of what a roller coaster should look like. I'm used to the rickety old one I can see off the freeway that gives you a bad case of whiplash when you ride on it......which is exactly why I avoid the roller coaster.
I hate the shaking as it climbs the hill, jerking your head back and forth and then the final jerk as it pulls you over the hill free falling to the next hill with enough momentum to glide over the hill without any further power from the car. My fear would be that the car would get stuck on the track and somehow the park would have to help you get down.
So is Life. Sometimes we struggle to get up the hill (sometimes kicking and screaming) with trials and somehow the strength you get from overcoming them gets you over the next hill and the next hill.
I remember coming home from my mission on a spiritual high and then it dropped dramatically in the next couple of days. When you share the gospel all day everyday you tend to have the spirit as a constant companion and then you get caught up in everyday life. It would be nice to think that we can be on a spiritual high all the time. No gut wrenching drops to make you feel as if your stomach is in the back of your throat.
But it happens. That's why you just hope in life that you have enough momentum to get you over the next hill and the next. It's funny how the things I don't like about the ride are the exact things that people love about the ride. They enjoy the bone rattling jerks (there's a whole new blog topic), the stomach-in-your-throat feeling, the excitement of unexpected turns.
I'm going to open up a forum for you now and ask you what spiritual things help you up the hill? The reason I ask is because the best part about a roller coaster ride is going on it with friends.
I will try to be serious, since this is your serious blog. (All right, I have wrangled the smart ask, so I can continue)
ReplyDeleteAll right, I love this annolgy today! It really works for the way I look at it. First thing, have to follow the rules. You know...."Keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times." Integrity is is what allows you to not be ashamed when you puke because of the crazy ride. It also gives you the appropriate perspective. If you were standing in the ride, you wouldn't be seeing much for very long. The second part for me is, what you have already mentioned. Friends make the ride worth while. They console when you are afraid, they scream with you on the way down, they laugh their guts out with you when you are on the flat part and they will let you lean on them through the corners.
So that is what I am counting on to get me up the next hill. Well that and the RS doing the dishes.....
I love you man.....let me know what part of the ride were on. :)
The examples of others helps me get back on track and pull me up. My parents especially - they just keep being consistently good examples - they're like the freight train that never stops, except to let you get on board. They are the true constant. Many members of my family and friends also provide similar examples, especially my brother Jared - he turned out to be a very good and honourable man and I have so much love and respect for him. My brother Craig is always the caring and peaceful one who shows understanding to many people. My sister Rebecca is just a consistently good girl and that's awesome and a wonderful example to her children and to me. Then there is my wonderful husband Damien who isn't LDS or any religion but is the kindest and most loving husband a girl could want. His nobility to others has no boundaries.
ReplyDeleteMy brothers Adam and David are similar to me in ways like the roller coaster I think when it comes to living sometimes in the moment. They are both better than I though when it comes to spirituality over the last decade.
Then there is this crazy sister-in-law I have that shows being LDS is certainly not boring - she has a fantastic wit about her that brings lots of smiles and big belly aching laughter....she's very cool....Krista!!!
Being mostly inactive over the last decade plus a little, has been largely due to me wanting to refrain from having my life open for others to see, essentially getting divorced from a maniac over a decade ago made me not want to share my life with anyone at church. The ward I was in at the time of my final breakup had a Bishop that totally betrayed my confidence and told his son, who was on the High Council, that we were having serious marital problems and were fighting a low and I was being abused etc. That son told his friend who just happened to be the woman had been chasing my then husband from before we were married.... and that "sealed the deal" of my trust with people at church especially in leadership positions. I just turned my back on the lot of it because it became too hard.
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However, I never stopped believing the gospel was true and hoped/planned on being in a better frame of mind one day and return. I've gone along to several wards I've been in over the last five years and am sorry that I moved out of Capalaba Ward because I've never been in a ward since (or even prior) that has been so welcoming, happy and actually made me WANT to go there. I don't really like the ward I'm in now except for a few people in particular. I find it clicky and unwelcoming and I've had Sundays when I'm not working and actually feel like going to church but didn't because I didn't really feel like going to that ward and because I live a long way from other wards I didn't want to travel for half the day.
ReplyDeleteI've often felt (in fact have felt this for the last 22 years) that if you are married and don't have kids you kind of don't exist because no-one seems to be able to relate to you as an individual - they only seem to be able to relate to you as a mother. I crave intelligent conversation with others at church that don't relate to anything to do with what the kids are doing. Yes, I know they're important, but really, kick the brain into action and talk about some serious topics that people with no kids (or even with kids) would want to discuss. I have no respect for those women who revolve their whole lives around their kids and can't actually have a conversation about any real world topic.... This is also a major reason I don't make a lot of friends at church because a lot of them fit into that category and it bores me to death. I often make friends with women whose children have grown up as their brains have come back on-line and that will enter into interesting conversations. But then there's the age gap which means I don't actually become "do activity with" friends with them. So there's an eternal gap there.
My parents keep telling me to be more tolerant of those that don't have the capacity for better conversation or don't bother doing their reading for the class and don't know what's going on or it's a "read around the class" situation and there are people who really should be just classed as illiterate and should seek help. So I suppose it is my own issue here and maybe I'm the one who should get help - spiritual help! My mother constantly tells me that I need spiritual food and that's part of going to church to get it.
Here's a question that came into my head the other day when I was doing some family history with my mother: "What if I am a direct descendent of Jesus Christ and his wife Mary Magdelene? How would that make me act? Would it make me act differently?" This is stuck in my head and I have found myself thinking about it a lot!