Lady In A Bookstore.

“You’ll never know all the tragedies within ones heart...” A lady in a book store said this to me a year and a half ago. She would come in when I was working and would ramble on about things that made no sense. This was the one thing she said to me though, that I will never be able to forget.
She was so right. We walk around thinking mostly about ourselves and our lives. Not to say that we are bad people or that we never think of others because I have seen and experienced this love, but it is human nature to get caught up in our own selves. Walking down the street we pass person after person, face after face and how often do we take a moment to put ourselves into their shoes. Or recognize that they have stuff going on in their own life. Not often enough. We have no idea what these people are all about, what their life experiences are, what may be troubling their soul, or to take a more positive stand, what is giving them pure joy. I often find myself thinking ‘what is it that made that person that way?’ or ‘what is that persons story? where have they been? where are they going?’ I know that I have a story, therefore leaving everyone else with theirs.
We often look to our past, to what has so far defined us. Our lives are lived more evidently by what has been instead of what is. I think we hinder ourselves when we are always looking back. Not to say that it is wrong to focus on our pasts because they have created our story, they have shaped us. We are the person we are today for many many reasons. I believe we have to make a choice to keep pressing on to a new tomorrow, to learn from the past, grow in it, grow with it, grow from it. Our futures are unknown, for me that is complete hope. Only by taking a step into this unknown can I continue in my prewritten story. Prewritten. Hope has become a comfort,even in a darkened world. I think amongst such a broken world hope is our light. As brothers and sisters we should recognize that we are all composed of different stories, that the tragedies in our hearts may be similar to others, or completely different. To meet people where they are at. Lets recognize that we are not the only ones with pain or joy in our hearts, lets take a step into tomorrow. Not leaving our past behind because we cannot ignore what has been, but opening our eyes to what will be.
This lady in a book store once said something to me, one thing out of hundreds stuck with me, and it changed my story forever.