Monday, August 2, 2010

Find your joy and you find your Self

"Celebrate we will
for life is short but sweet for certain."
~Dave Matthews, "Two Step"
.

DMB concert 2009 photo collage courtesy of www.gilcelia.com

A year ago, Hubby and I went to a Dave Matthews Concert with friends. The skies poured down for hours before the show and turned the open-air lawn into a muddy, slippery, soggy mess.

It was the first concert I'd been to in a long, long time. I stood there, listening to my favorite band, Hubby swaying behind me, his arms wrapped around my shoulders.

Connected.

That night was a turning point for me. It was the first time I felt like Myself after having had my second child. Standing there, high on the music and the beer and the company, I was happier than I had been in a long time. It was like I remembered...

I remembered who I was.
I am not sure why, but I can tell you I felt Free.

Fast forward to this past weekend. We went back to see Dave in his Summer 2010 Tour.

As much as I had been looking forward to the concert, I was a bit worried that I'd be disappointed. I didn't think it would be possible that I could feel "that" again. I thought, surely, it had been a product of a weird time in my life, a time when I was just coming out of a year blurred by colicky cries, sleepless nights, and postpartum weight.

And maybe, just maybe, I had thought, I had even been a tad bit drunk last year.

But no.

There it was again: the feeling.

Joy.

Freedom.

Me.

Again, brought upon by the music, the lights, the night, the company.

It's easy to pass on stuff in life. When you have small kids and large bills, it's easy to say: "No, we're not going to do that right now, because babysitting is tough/we really can't afford it/it's too far/it's not necessary/we're too tired/too busy/too everything."
But then you forget. You forget who you are, what you love, what makes you feel most like You.

12 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more and have been experiencing a bit of this same nostalgia this summer. Nice to be back, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this post Liz....it is REALLY easy to forget what makes you feel like you....I actually think I had a long time like that after I had my children, mostly after my 2nd child....I think I am still in the process of finding ME. Thanks for letting me be able to say that....I don't think I ever have.

    "Remember what makes you YOU"....absolutely.

    Happy Week-end honey! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  3. You know what I love? Coming here and seeing you finding you. It's so easy to lose yourself when you become a mom. And it's super easy to stay lost until they get big; ask me. So I love that you keep finding yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And isn't it great when we put the practical aside, our own worries and fears, and instead replace them with what makes us us. So happy that you made the decision to go and that you felt that way again. Hold on to it, tight!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow, I had an almost identical experience a couple of years after the birth of my second child. I went to a concert and danced untill my legs ached. The feeling of exhilaration was like a long lost memory. You're right, it's so important to reconnect with that feeling at every opportunity.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love this post. An important reminder, and so hard to allow ourselves this, even occasionally.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This post really hit home with me. I had two little girls in 15 months and things got a little crazy! They are the best little girls ever! But our youngest was sick and the stress, bills, and weight piled on. I lost who I was. I forgot what I used to do, what I used to like. I am now putting the pieces back together and I am finding myself again! Thanks for sharing this. Its comforting to know I am not the only one.

    Jennifer
    http://wecanlosethepounds.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. A great post

    I totally agree - the hardest bit is knowing where your self is and remembering to nurture it so that you don't gradually dwindle away into nothingness

    ReplyDelete
  9. Why has it been so long since I've been here? Coming back feels like coming home. (And FYI, it's not YOU...I haven't been around much in general.)

    Finding you. Feeling Y-O-U again in a moment of life, in music, in a concert. Yes to the Y-E-S.

    ReplyDelete
  10. as i burn the cd with the pictures from last concert, i find this...
    you're right not to wait on your flaky brazilian friend.
    love it.

    ReplyDelete

Comments rock...