The way I view life has changed during this past week and all I can say is, FINALLY! Whew! I am so glad!
Our car broke down back in June and we couldn't afford another one (and didn't want to go into debt) so I put my life on hold for a little while. "We can't go to church because we don't have a car." "We can't meet up with friends because we don't have a car." I thought that we would be without a car for a month or more and I could put life on hold for that amount of time. Well, then October rolled around and I was tired of not having fellowship with other Christians, so I finally looked up a church we knew about and found out we could get there in 45 minutes on the bus. So, that was feasible and we started going on Tuesday nights and it was a great blessing. But the rest of the time I lived within a mile radius of my house, trying to be a good mom to my kids while Irish worked long hours. We'd walk to the grocery store for a few items that we could carry in the stroller and when Irish was home, we would push a random buggy to the store and bring all of our groceries home in that! Thankfully, we live in an area where we can walk to a LOT of places. It was just a matter of making myself get out of the house to walk with the 3 kids using a regular stroller (our double stroller broke).
This December we went on vacation to visit family and while we were gone I started to realize a few things. 1. Life is SO MUCH bigger than the little 1 mile radius I've been living in. And guess what? I CAN be a part of it! So I need to GO be a part of it! 2. SO many people don't visit the things that are near to them. They live within an hour of NYC and have been once in their whole lives. They live by Six Flags and have never been. People travel all over the world to visit places that the natives don't even take time to see. And I don't want that to be the way I am. And 3. Life is too short to waste a second of it. So, instead of waiting for the future - waiting til I get more money, waiting til I get a car - I need to start living in the present and working with what I have.
So, I decided that I would go and be a tourist in Los Angeles and see the things that tourists come to see that I have yet to take advantage of after living here over 1 1/2 years! We arrived home and Irish spent the whole next week working in Hollywood and I realized that we could easily get down there. Public transportation cost $5 for the whole day (for myself - he had a week pass and the kids were free). AND it included a ride on the subway - my girls have been wanting to ride a train for the longest time and here was one right down the street!
We left around 11 on Saturday morning and caught a 45 minute bus ride to the train station. We arrived there and Sissy and Bean were so happy to get to ride on a real train! We arrived in Hollywood and spent the next few hours being tourists. It was so amazing. I felt like I was in a different world and here it was - barely 15 miles from my house! It felt bittersweet - I was having a nice, fun time and could have done it over a year ago! But oh, well, I said to myself, suck it up and quit living in the past and enjoy yourself today!
We had a great time. My 4 year old, a little bent toward the dramatic, looked around at the architecture near the Kodak Theatre and said, "I can't even say anything!" I asked her what she meant and she said, "I can't say anything - I just can't believe we're here!" I think she was trying to say she was speechless : )
We visited some friends on the way home and by the time we got back, it had been a very long day. But we had all enjoyed our time together as a family and the kids really enjoyed themselves. We spent hardly any money and had fun!
I was talking with my brother-in-law the next day and he said that he's been learning that we don't need to live for the moment but we do need to live in the moment. That is really true. I want to take each minute, squeeze everything I can out of it, and quit looking at my limitations. I want to do what I can with what I have and not waste my life or my time.
Also, living in Los Angeles is teaching me to be so grateful for little things that I always took for granted - a quiet neighborhood, a spacious house, a washer and dryer in my own home, inexpensive rent, a car that will take me 10 miles in 10 minutes (instead of the bus that takes 50!). Oh so many things!!
A friend commented on my new outlook on life and said that not only is it easier for me (and others) to live with myself, it also makes it easier for me to be able to hear from God.
So, that's all. Here are some pictures from our Hollywood trip:
Sissy waiting to get on the train
Mickey Mouse, Irish, and Bean
Little Man and myself in front of the Hollywood sign
Looking up in front of the Kodak Theatre
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