I have always been a story teller. A good story teller is questionable but a story teller nonetheless. Just recently my Mom gave me an old box with "Heather" written on the outside of it which she found while cleaning out the basement. To my surprise when I opened the box I realized it was filled with things she had saved over the years that belonged to me. All sorts of things were in this box. Pictures, journals, diaries, old letters and notes, cards, my college essay, you name it and it was in this box. I got a big kick out of going through these old things that belonged to me but what I enjoyed the most was reading old stories I wrote as a child. There were stories about everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. There was The Frankenstein Story staring my Grandpa, the story about a missing cookie who ran away because he(or she) whichever you wish did not want to be eaten by my older sister, and The Lost Pumpkin (written and illustrated by me in 3rd grade and even has a hard book cover) that was dedicated to my sister. I had (have) quite the imagination. As I was rereading my childhood writing and sharing some with Michael I could not help but laugh and cry at the same time. Happy tears of course. I was thinking about the past and I realized that nothing really changed about me besides the obvious, I (kinda) grew up.
I say "kinda" because I do not consider myself a grown up and I never will. You see my Grandma always told me not to grow up. She told me that when people grew up they lost their inner child. She said that in the hustle and bustle of life and responsibility some people just had to grow up because they knew no other way. She also said that these same people did not live their life to the fullest but instead they woke up every morning and just went through the motions. At that time I was only a child myself and I remember thinking this conversation is quite silly because everyone had to grow up right? Wrong. My Grandmother knew something about my heart back then that I did not; she told me one day it would all make sense. During the same conversation we had she also told me that I had a gift inside my heart (the same gift as my Daddy) and it was something very few had. She said my heart was filled with the spirit of a child and that although she had no doubts that I myself would become an adult I would never really grow up.
As the years passed on I remember realizing that my Grandmother also had this special gift she spoke of to me. Looking back she was the biggest kid of us all. Raising two boys with my Grandfather she was also a house wife and a career women, none of which stopped her from letting her heart shine like a child, and that I admired the most about her.
I was already in college and on my way to growing up when I went to Florida during spring break to visit her and Grandpa; I remember this visit like it was yesterday. It was just the three of us for an entire week and although at the time I may not have known it this was a very special visit that I would forever cherish. One night at dinner she told me something I will never forget. "Heather" she said, "You will go extremely far in life if you continue to let the inner child inside of your heart shine"...I do not recall what I said back to her that night but I know to this day I still hold onto that special conversation we had very close to my heart. Because of that I do just as she asked, I continue to let my heart glow like a child something she did until the day she died.
I guess my Grandmother knew my heart pretty well because boy was she right. To this day what I love most about myself is that I still have this sweet inner child in me.
The idea about starting a blog has been running around in my head for awhile now but in the past it never amounted to anything; to be honest I really do not know where this is going yet. I do know one thing and that is I have a lot more to say then ever before. Maybe it is because there is a lot more going on in my life or maybe it is because I am surrounded by so much more joy then ever before but whatever the reasoning may be, who cares? All that matters is my life has taken a whole new flight and I am a better person because of it.
So, come fly with me. Follow my story and see what I have been up to and where my dreams are leading me. Although it has been a bumpy ride with plenty of turbulence across the map I have finally reached a destination, a very happy destination may I add and I don't plan on leaving, nor do I ever plan on letting the child in my heart burn out.
Until Next Time...
<3, Heather
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