"You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have the facts of life." Tootie and her pals were lucky enough to grow up in a false reality where this lesson was already learned. Nevertheless it's absolutely correct. We all have a lot of reasons to remember bad times. Often times it overshadows our ability to remember the good, myself included - more on that here if you're interested. Today a friend challenged me to make a list of good memories from my childhood, unaware of the depth that proposition carried for me. There is a certain power in intentionally remembering the good times. That's today's gift.
Many of us get discouraged because we think to often upon the stresses and challenges of our lives, and we tend to remember the negative. It's time to do change perspective and intentionally remember the good. Here are just a few from my childhood:
- Riding my bike down a huge ditch into a pool of water (that was unknown to me)
- Laying on the floor in front of the fan watching Sesame Street
- Swings - there was a park I'd go to and swing as high as I could for hours at a time. I wanted to fly!
- I loved the Ninja Turtles - one year for Halloween my mom and aunts surprised me. We had no money, so they took two weeks and made a paper-mâché turtle shell and full costume. It was amazing!
- Walking down to the corner store to get a soda
- Playing outside in the street and building bike ramps
- Birthdays - we'd always blow up tons of balloons and play games until late in the night
The fact is, we didn't have much growing up. I'm the only person I know who learned how to turn the water and electricity back on at the age of seven. In my defense, I did not know this was illegal. And in truth, it's another memory that I now laugh about.
What are some of your good memories from being a kid?
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