I was listening to a speech by a graduate with autism. He told the seniors to do the unexpected. He himself was unexpected as a speaker, and he hooked me from his first words. It got me thinking. People who’ve known me for many years, but haven’t talked to me in a while would probably wonder what happened to me. I’ve followed an unexpected path through some of life’s hard challenges, and came out the other side different. Really different, but in an good way, I believe.
When you’ve seen everything change in your life, and the ground you’re standing on begins to shake it makes you question, and questions are never bad. They can lead to some answers, and probably a lot more questions. For the first time in my life I’m free from believing I have all the answers. I’m a student of life and I love it.
Through the process I found there were many folks asking a lot of the same questions, and suddenly my path wasn’t so lonely. What it did for me was radically change how I view my faith, my own life, and all of humanity. At least I can say I’m not afraid to listen to people with differing opinions than mine and hear what they are saying. Someone is no longer a threat to me because they look differently, think, or love differently. Basically I’ve gone from, as a friend once told me, a Sunday School Teacher to a Murder Mystery Writer, tackling subjects that have come up along my journey of getting to know the world in which I live. Listening, and observation are now as much a part of who I am, as speaking.
There are times in life when we are thrown a curve, it can look way off line, but still be called a strike. After two strikes, I went for the third curve thrown, and discovered a new place in life for me. You can teach an old dog new tricks, and believe me you’re never to old to learn.
Life is amazing and sometimes we waste so much time doing what someone else expects us to do. With the help of a curve ball I did the unexpected and followed my own path to a new life waiting in the middle of my old one. I may seem a tad unconventional how I live my faith now, but it’s alive and burning in my heart.
