I've been thinking about the ironies of life this week.
For example: we are born into this world as the most helpless of all tiny creatures, a child. Only to grow up and then be told to learn how to become as a little child. I was already a child! Why can't I stay a child? Wouldn't that save so much time and heartache along the way?
Another example: when we are children we fight tooth-and-nail to NOT take a nap, and to NOT go to bed on time at night. We might miss something! We don't want to miss the parties and candy that we are sure we are missing out on while we sleep and everyone else is having a great old time! And during the day, we're bored. Always bored. "Mama, what can I do? I'm bored!" - and the old stand-by reply "If you can't find something to do, I've got plenty for you to do!" (aka: chores) So I'd quickly scamper off to avoid those too. Now, as an adult, I would do just about anything to take a nap and to have time to be bored. It's like a dream: to be bored, have nothing to do... just go lie down and take a nap. Oh the irony of life!
Next: I finally find a friend who is 100% my kindred spirit, my bestest soul-friend... and we spend our entire lives apart from each other. She has been globetrotting - living in various countries and then in various states of this great nation, and I've been in in two places this whole time. In the 25 years we've known each other we probably have spent no more than a total combined amount of 6 months together! No, that's not a joke. Seriously, Heavenly Father? I can't even have my best friend close by to share our lives together... AS IT HAPPENS? Nope. It's not meant to be. So, lucky for us, our friendship is more like an eternal sisterhood and we literally pick up right where we left off each time we speak. But I MISS her terribly sometimes and wish so badly we could be in the same place at the same time and cry on each other's shoulders and share each other's laughter and go out for fries and ranch dressing at the same restaurant, once a week, for girl's night out! But instead, we have to rely on email and phone calls. I'll take it. It's better than nothing. But here I thought we had friends in this life to walk beside each other in so many ways, and yet, our friendship is long-distance and invisible while we live miles apart - yet our hearts continue to be knit together. Go figure!
Getting married: you get married to spend your life together. However, you spend less time together married than you do when you're dating. And it gets progressively worse as the years pass on. I have no experience with retirement, but for us retirement doesn't look like even a remote possibility, so more and more I see my husband less and less. Ironic.
There are many other examples. But these are the ones that came to mind recently. Life is full of ironies. Moments here and there that leave one wondering. I figure that ironies are one of the "spices" of life. It keeps us on our toes, it livens things up, it makes us cry and makes us laugh, and it keep us thinking: What's the purpose?
I'm thankful to know the real purpose of life. That we lived with our Father in Heaven, we are literally His spirit children, He sent us to earth to exercise our free will (agency) and to choose to become like Him, so that in the end we can all return to live with Him again. He sent His Son to live a perfect life, showing us the way to live, and then to die for us in order to pay for our sins, and finally to resurrect for us so that we, too, can resurrect one day, and ultimately be able to return to live with Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ, and our families. What a tremendous amount of joy and comfort that brings to me.
There are many ironic moments in life. I hope we can learn to enjoy them as they come.
For example: we are born into this world as the most helpless of all tiny creatures, a child. Only to grow up and then be told to learn how to become as a little child. I was already a child! Why can't I stay a child? Wouldn't that save so much time and heartache along the way?
Another example: when we are children we fight tooth-and-nail to NOT take a nap, and to NOT go to bed on time at night. We might miss something! We don't want to miss the parties and candy that we are sure we are missing out on while we sleep and everyone else is having a great old time! And during the day, we're bored. Always bored. "Mama, what can I do? I'm bored!" - and the old stand-by reply "If you can't find something to do, I've got plenty for you to do!" (aka: chores) So I'd quickly scamper off to avoid those too. Now, as an adult, I would do just about anything to take a nap and to have time to be bored. It's like a dream: to be bored, have nothing to do... just go lie down and take a nap. Oh the irony of life!
Next: I finally find a friend who is 100% my kindred spirit, my bestest soul-friend... and we spend our entire lives apart from each other. She has been globetrotting - living in various countries and then in various states of this great nation, and I've been in in two places this whole time. In the 25 years we've known each other we probably have spent no more than a total combined amount of 6 months together! No, that's not a joke. Seriously, Heavenly Father? I can't even have my best friend close by to share our lives together... AS IT HAPPENS? Nope. It's not meant to be. So, lucky for us, our friendship is more like an eternal sisterhood and we literally pick up right where we left off each time we speak. But I MISS her terribly sometimes and wish so badly we could be in the same place at the same time and cry on each other's shoulders and share each other's laughter and go out for fries and ranch dressing at the same restaurant, once a week, for girl's night out! But instead, we have to rely on email and phone calls. I'll take it. It's better than nothing. But here I thought we had friends in this life to walk beside each other in so many ways, and yet, our friendship is long-distance and invisible while we live miles apart - yet our hearts continue to be knit together. Go figure!
Getting married: you get married to spend your life together. However, you spend less time together married than you do when you're dating. And it gets progressively worse as the years pass on. I have no experience with retirement, but for us retirement doesn't look like even a remote possibility, so more and more I see my husband less and less. Ironic.
There are many other examples. But these are the ones that came to mind recently. Life is full of ironies. Moments here and there that leave one wondering. I figure that ironies are one of the "spices" of life. It keeps us on our toes, it livens things up, it makes us cry and makes us laugh, and it keep us thinking: What's the purpose?
There are many ironic moments in life. I hope we can learn to enjoy them as they come.
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