Those who don't know...

Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either.

-Golda Meir

Mean, rude, self-centered, egotist, hateful, overbearing and the list just keeps on going. Those are all terms, people have used to describe me. I think they have it all wrong. I would illustrate myself with another word, Passionate. I have stong feelings, stong emotions and sometimes that comes across in a very negative way. The things I believe in, I believe to the very core of my soul. The things I love, I love to the very bottom of my heart. It is hard to hold that back. All of this is bottled up inside, it has to come out. I can show you my hurts as well as my joys, my fears as well as my love. They are all, one in the same.

Golda Meir was a passionate woman. She overcame impossible odds to become Isreal's first woman Prime Minister. She was described as, "the strong-willed, straight-talking, gray-bunned grandmother of the Jewish People". She was one of two women to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Afterwords, she was quoted as saying, "After I signed, I cried. When I studied American history as a schoolgirl and I read about those who signed the Declaration of Independence, I couldn't imagine these were real people doing something real. And there I was sitting down and signing a declaration of establishment.". She was Passionate about her heritage, her homeland, her people, her freedom. She was literally brought to tears over her actions, and what they meant for the entire world.

In the end, what I think she meant by this quote is, don't be afraid to express yourself. When you cry, cry from the heart. Don't be embarressed by your grief, your fears or your sadness. Show the passion! When you are able to do this, you can truly feel the joy of laughter. You can appreciate it more, because you also know the pain. You can't experience the one, until you've experienced the other.

Never regret...

Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience.

-Victoria Holt

I just heard this quote for the first time, yesterday. It blew me away. I see quotes all the time, that I like, and want to remember. However, very few, hit me the way this one did. I guess when you hear something that relates to life right now, or relates to things you've been talking or thinking about, it hits you kind of hard.

This quote has kind of always been my mantra, without even knowing it. I try not to have any regrets. I tell people that all the time. I am who I am today, because of the decisions I made, and the actions I've taken along the way. I try not to live in the "what if". If I had done anything different, I may not be married to my wife, have MY boys, writing this blog, who knows. Life could be radically different. I don't know how it could have turned out any better. I have a beautiful family, amazing friends and a lifetime of memories. And I have the pictures to prove it!

I had someone recently tell me, they made some decisions lately that they truly regreted. I was dumbfounded by that. As we talked about, it wasn't regret they were feeling. It was sadness. They were sad that things couldn't continue the way they had. Life was moving on. I relayed a couple of other quotes to them that I love to try and help them deal with their feelings. "Never regret something that once made you smile" by Amber Deckers. The other is "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened" by Dr. Suess. (I love those quotes, they are true life lessons) They started to see that maybe regret wasn't it at all. They have taken a new look at the feelings they are experiencing, and starting to see that those decisions were the right one for tha day. They made them happy, and have grown from the experience.

You never know where, what seems like small insignificant decisons will lead you. I recently have had the privelage of reconnecting with an old friend, someone I haven't seen in over 15 years. As we have spent the last few weeks catching up, I relayed to them the story of how we met. The small events in my life that led me to the place where we would meet. Some of those events seem so small, as I look back. But they had to take place in order for me to be there. Also, when we parted ways all those years ago, it wasn't on the best of terms. But now, time and distance seperates us, and all the bad is gone. I have never regreted that friendship or the things leading up to it, and now I know why. We were destined to be friends now. We each just needed to be in the right place in our lives. And those events 22 years ago led us to this place today.

The moral to all of this? Don't look back with regret. Cherish the memories, they are the life that got you to today. They are also the force that will lead you into tomorrow. I would only add one thing to Ms. Holt's quote, the good is an experience too. Revel in the good and the bad, they are the very marrow of your life...