Oh, what tangled webs we weave...

I wanted to share with you a poem that I got from another woman's blog. This reminds me that I complain way too often about what I don't have, and in the process I am missing out on the good things in life that I should be appreciating. This was especially true when I first moved to Phoenix from Seattle when I was 16. I was mopey and I didn't want to make new friends and I would lash out and threaten to run away. Looking back, I really regret the sour attitude I had. I didn't realize that there are beautiful things about Phoenix, and things that I will miss about it when I eventually leave here.
Also, I was reading my diary last night from when I was 14 (yes, I still have that and many other diaries that I have written over the years!), and at the time I was living in Seattle still. In almost every entry I was complaining about wanting to live in Texas and not Seattle! Oh, the irony! Anyway, here's the poem:


It was spring but it was summer I wanted; the warm days and the great outdoors.


It was summer but it was fall I wanted; the colorful leaves and the cool dry air.


It was fall but it was winter I wanted; the beautiful snow and the joy of the holiday season.


It was now winter but it was spring I wanted; the warmth and the blossoming of nature.


I was a child but it was adulthood I wanted; the freedom and the respect.


I was twenty but it was thirty I wanted; to be mature and sophisticated.


I was middle-aged but it was twenty I wanted; the youth and the free spirit.


I was retired but it was middle-age I wanted; the presence of mind without limitations.


My life was over but I never got what I wanted.

-Written by a 14 year old boy; from a message by Dr. Charles Swindoll at Northwest Bible Church in Dallas