Who might you have been?

Until I completed my internship for my counseling psychology degree, I pretty much thought we were all just "who we are".  There is nothing like realizing what could have been until you counsel little children who have lost a parent.

I spent the majority of my 750 internship hours at Solace House, which is a center for grieving children and their families.  It truly is a one of a kind counseling center that focuses on the kids first.  All too many times they are the ones who get forgotten in the grieving process.

But it was there that I started  to ponder on today's particular thought.  When I would see the little children who one day would have the perfect life situation with two parents and then the next, lose either their mother (or father), I would think....he (or she) now will never be who he/she would have been if both parents had lived.  The story that was written has just been irrevocably changed and none of us will ever know the original ending.  What happens next may not necessarily be bad, but it will definitely be different.

So then that made me think about all the turns in the road we all face that ultimately change our story. Personally, I can identify some major turns in my own life that rolled the dice for a different outcome.  And I can definitely see the changes in dice rolls for my children.

And it makes me wonder.....

Shoes don't tell the story

And I wonder if they wonder?  And then I wonder if anyone else looks back and wonders what I wonder?  Obviously not about me and mine, but about they and them?  And imagines?

One time I talked through "life" with one of my girl's, all the while drawing a straight line.  Every time she had what I considered a "story changer", I broke the line and started over.  Then we did the same exercise for several people in our family.  It was very telling.  It made us appreciate where they were at and how they got there.

I tell folks all the time that none of us really know what "shoes" the rest of us walk in.  Or where we bought them.  But those lines sure tell us a thing or two about a thing or two.

Although I don't know everyones story,  I do know this.  It never hurts to err on the side of kindness.

Until next time,
#what'syourstorychanger
#deucesneverloses

your pal,
Kari