Enough WIth The White Horse Already!

I never believed in The One. Whomever you choose to marry....well, you make each other The One.

Wise words and a huge relief for this City Girl that had been inundated with messages of Finding The One and Searching For Your Soulmate since she was a little girl.

I recently sat down to lunch with a friend and poured my heart out about love and relationships, marriage and other scary grown-up topics, and verbally processed through major life decisions that had been swirling around my thoughts. And the wisdom bomb she dropped was a huge relief.

Choose wisely whom you intend to be Your One and Only, but know that whomever you choose may not look exactly like The Knight in Shining Armor.

Some men are just men, not constant heroes who respond to my every whimper and sigh. And that's more than OK.

It was good to hear that the one we all look for – as well as all the other things in life one hopes will happen – may not look exactly like Prince Charming on His White Horse, but could instead look like real life.

And real life may actually turn out to be better than the fairy tale.

Lessons in Learning How To Rest, Part Twelve.

Lesson Twelve: If you're happy and you know it, be content.

Let's set the scene, shall we? 

Saturday morning: Exhausted, over-heated and barely awake, this City Girl dragged herself downtown for a late breakfast with a new friend. It was one of those meet-ups where you wish you could conjure up the stamina to make eye contact and carry on a conversation, but know that if you do you will end up staring at your counterpart wide-eyed while drooling into your latte with nary a word leaving your mouth that sort of looks as though it just suffered a small stroke. But this City Girl was so happy to meet up with said friend that wading through crowds of sweaty tourists to reach the café, while only having use of one eye at a time, barely swayed the happy feeling that morning. This was someone who has only begun to scratch the surface of this new friendship, but who went out of her way to become a new friend. This can only be equated to happiness, in spite of the fact that there are more friends around than can ever be counted. Being sought out never hurt anyone, amIright?

Now let's get to the point!

Fast forward to the part where the conversation gets raw. In the words of R. Kelly, it was Real Talk. We had compared life notes, talked about lifelovework and just about everything under the sun when she took a turn mid-sentence and brought up the one word that everyone (and I do mean everyone) will choke on from time to time. Content. As in, I am happy. Period. Not "I'm happy that I get to do this". Not "I'm happy that I have this boyfriend" or "I'm so rocking that job". Just happy. In all things. In all places. At all times. In all areas of life, whether they be good or bad.

Content. 

I had to ask myself....wait. Scratch that. I didn't have to ask myself. I already knew.

It's the one thing that plagues most people, whether they are aware of it or not. The one concept that keeps people awake at night. It's a word that can change everything or nothing. It's often overlooked. It's almost never considered. And it can be the toughest pill to swallow once you become aware of its true meaning.

Am I content?

And so I let that question rattle around my brain this week. Every part of me wanted to scream "YES!", because I knew it was the "right" answer. Or at least the answer that sounds the best. But when it comes down to brass tax, can I truly say that I am happy in all areas of my life? Well, as of yesterday the answer was a resounding yes, but today, as I fight feelings of frustration and sadness over being unable to make certain things in my life different, I'm teetering on the edge. My heart is toying with the thought of being unsatisfied, because my life doesn't always look the way I think it should or because things just aren't happening fast enough. And let's be honest here, dear readers, isn't that how it always goes? One day you're hot, the next you're cold. You're yes then you're no. You're up then you're down...

Thank you, Katy Perry. *ahem* Cue hope. Aaand...ACTION!

The inconvenient truth? It's a choice first and an action second. Does this require work? Oh, you betcha! Is this going to take every ounce of this City Girl's hope to keep that content feeling in place on all those cold days? Oh, most definitely. Can this truly be done? Well, this Girl's gonna try!