Recently, a message crossed my path that stopped me in my tracks.
It said:
“The weight you’ve been carrying was never permanent. It was preparation.”
I read those words slowly.
Then I read them again.
Because if I’m honest, there have been seasons of my life when I questioned everything.
Times when life felt delayed.
Times when doors closed.
Times when healing seemed to take longer than I thought it should.
Times when I wondered if I had somehow fallen behind.
But age has given me a gift that youth often cannot:
Perspective.
Today, I can look back and see that many of the experiences I once resisted became the very experiences that shaped me.
The losses taught me gratitude.
The disappointments taught me resilience.
The uncertainty taught me trust.
The heartbreak taught me compassion.
And the healing taught me how to sit with another human being and truly listen.
What if the things we wish had never happened are not interruptions to our path?
What if they are part of the path?
Not because suffering is good.
Not because pain is required.
But because growth often asks us to become someone we could not have become otherwise.
As I approach my 78th birthday, I am less interested in perfection and more interested in alignment.
Less interested in controlling outcomes and more interested in showing up fully for the life that is unfolding right now.
I’ve learned that healing is rarely about becoming someone new.
It is about remembering who we were before fear convinced us we were anything less than whole.
Perhaps that is the invitation for all of us.
To stop waiting for life to become easier before we trust it.
To stop believing we are behind.
To stop measuring ourselves against timelines that were never ours.
Instead, we can ask:
Who am I becoming through this experience?
Because sometimes what feels like a setback is actually preparation.
Sometimes what feels like an ending is really an initiation.
And sometimes the life we cannot yet imagine is quietly making its way toward us.
One small step.
One courageous choice.
One open-hearted moment at a time.
Reflection Question:
What challenge from your past has unexpectedly become one of your greatest teachers?
