Arrivals

I thought about it as I drove over the bridge. So much different, but yet the same. The feelings themselves are the things that have changed. We are all grown up. What does that even mean? It feels like when I was 17 years old and finally got to drive on my own for the very first time. I had failed my driving test the first time. I went back the very next day. This was not going to beat me. And I passed. And the angels were singing.... Or maybe that was me saying hallelujah....  Freedom came on a Saturday morning. Hot and humid as southern summers are. And my car...well it had no a/c and no radio. And I didn't care one bit. I manually rolled all the windows down, put my boom box in the passenger seat, amply supplied with a mass quantity of brand new D batteries and I headed onto the freeway. I wore my bathing suit and shorts because it was so hot. I could shower and change at my destination. I was free. And I learned how to drive that stick shift because that was the only way I would be allowed to have a car. And I drove. Half an hour to the other side of town. I drove. I was a grown up.... Insert much sarcasm here. But I sure did believe that I had finally arrived. My heart kind of felt that kind of freedom yesterday. I looked around and here I am. All the things I have worked for, somehow settling in. And we can do this. We are doing this. And it's beautiful. And my heart is full. Thankful.