“If you’re John Muir you want trees to
live among. If you’re Emily, a garden will do.
Try to find the right place for yourself.
If you can’t find it, at least dream of it.”
In the car yesterday, the twins and I were having a conversation about being identical twins. “Because we are twins we are the exactly the same,” one twin claimed. “No, that’s not true, I’m nothing like you!” the other one shouted.
It had been a rough twin day for them both.
Talking a bit loud to be heard over their bickering, I said: “Both things are true, boys!” They stopped fighting to listen. “You have the same genetics, the same DNA. You look the same. But you are not exactly the same. You like different foods and have different friends. You even have different scars now with different stories attached to them. No one, no matter how identical they are, is exactly the same as anyone else.”
No one is exactly the same as anyone else.
Even our dreams are different as is the ways we choose to pursue them. How we see the world, how we engage with it, how we make friends and how we lose them… it’s all a bit different, isn’t it?
So why do we try so hard to fit in other people’s shoes?
I love this poem by Mary Oliver because it reminds me of how unique and special we each are.
It reminds me to take time to discern who God created me to be.
It reminds me to waste less time trying to be someone else.
It reminds me to dream.
After all, God made me to be me and you to be you… and that’s for keeps.
