Bless the Broken Road

Driving to my parents' house tonight, that damn Rascal Flatts song "Bless the Broken Road" came on, the one I quoted just a month ago, and a new line in it caught my ear: I think about the years I spent just passin' through. I'd like to have the time I lost, and give it back to you. But you just smile and take my hand, you've been there you understand. It's all part of a grander plan, that is comin' true.

It got me thinking about something Meeshie said about loving someone's past and their ex's. About how I used to feel threatened by knowing about ex-loves and ex-girlfriends, about how I worry about what someone will think of my past loves, of choices I made. What Meeshie said was that you have to learn to love that person's past and the people in it because they helped shape him into who he is, the wonderful person who you love. And I want that kind of acceptance. Because I've felt that urge that I wished I hadn't had to have wasted the time getting to be where I am, that I could take back that time and give it as a gift to the new person I love. But I want someone who will understand the value in the lessons I learned and appreciate that process, maybe even more than I do. Not just in love. In life choices too, like leaving TFA.

Because each step, each stage, each choice was a choice on the path leading me to where I am now. To the perfect time and place of now.