Life Lessons of an OLD Valley Girl
"Old", yeah I guess so....I mean I am no longer 23 years old with a 24 inch waist and it would seem that were I a cat I would be down a few lives, not because of the company I keep or the risks that I take but because life is like that. "Old" as in 'former'...most definitely, I moved from "The Valley" in *ahem* 1981. Honestly I thought some of my experiences up to that point were the worst things that could ever happen to me: having my tonsils taken out on my 7th birthday; in the 6th grade while riding (my sisters) bike to school I was struck by a car; my parents (somewhat) sudden divorce when I was 16 then moving to Colorado and away from my lifelong friends to a place I had never seen. But that is the stuff life is made of and I have learned through life and through photography that there is beauty to be found in virtually everything, one just needs to look.
The 'Life Lessons of an OLD Valley Girl' project began as a simple little gift book I wanted to make for my daughter, to give to her upon her graduation from college, but the more I jotted down in my notebook the bigger the project became and now, well I am testing the waters, so to speak, to see what others think.
The impetus for this grew out of the events of the past 14 years of my life and what I have learned and tried to pass on to my children. My mother always told me that "attitude is everything" but as a child I never truly understood what that meant, so I worked on trying to have a good attitude about everything, to find joy, to embrace happiness, to love and to forgive, to have empathy and to always work hard. Sometimes that worked well for me and other times it bit me in the butt. My 'aha!' moment came as I was trying to get through an exceptionally bad day in the weeks that followed the shooting at the school where I worked (Yes, I Work at Arapahoe High School) and I ran across this quote by John F. Westfall, "If we knew all the answers and had everything figured out, life wouldn't be an adventure-it would be a commute." Well this year's adventure began with the school shooting on Dec 13, 2013, followed a month later by my father-in-law's massive heart attack and then the diagnosis of ovarian cancer for my mother-in-law and it is this quote that now graces the back of a "chemo quilt" I made for my mother-in-law to keep her warm during her treatments.
The single most important thing I have learned over the years is that if you love someone then FORGIVE (because we are all imperfect creatures). Admittedly I wish I had learned this when I was much younger, but it is never too late to put it into practice. It was as my father was dying and unable to speak that this was made perfectly clear to me, you see when he died ,at the age of 59 and I had just turned 30, I had no recollection whatsoever of him ever having told me that he loved me. Yet, I reached down and touched the top of his foot (which was strapped to the hospital bed because they thought he was being combative when in reality he just wanted to die at home in his own bed. Indeed he did sneak out of the hospital, walked 5 miles home, and broke into his own house and eventually died in his own bed). As I touched the top of his bony foot which bore a strong resemblance to mine (minus the red toenail polish) I simply said, "I love you Dad," and with that tears ran down his face. I knew he couldn't speak, in fact he was incapable of any show of emotion on his face thanks to a tumor that had damaged his facial nerves, but his tears spoke volumes. Forgiveness...he was not a perfect father nor I a perfect daughter, but at that point it really didn't matter. Five years later I was diagnosed with that same tumor, but that is another story and list of life lessons, yet therein is another Life Lesson of an OLD Valley Girl: If you love someone TELL THEM!
This "Old" Valley Girl has learned plenty, at one point I was thankful for everyday I woke up on the green side of the grass, and believe me I still am, but I also feel that the Creator did not bring me this far to have me just fade away. Look for more "Life Lessons of an OLD Valley Girl" in the coming weeks and months. Maybe even a Facebook page or perhaps I will write that book I promised myself I would and give it to my daughter.
