Re-Entry.

Have you ever noticed that re-entry is difficult?
Doesn't matter if you're navigating 
the freeway on/off ramp, 
jumping into the water for the first 
chilly swim of the season, 
coming back to a difficult conversation 
that you never quite finished, or...
starting to live like your now-normal is, 
well...your new-normal.
Re-entry can be painful.


And honestly, I think that's what keeps many of us from doing it.
We walk away, avoid the inevitable, or sidestep the often uncomfortable (but always necessary)step of re-entry.
Coming back to someone, something, or somewhere often requires risk --  but the moving forward is what will keep the hope of tomorrow alive!


Last year, about right now, I was getting ready to step away from what I new to be my "normal".  While the world around me was celebrating, honoring, researching, wondering, worrying, playing, trusting, isolating, fighting, and loving...
I was preparing...
to be absent from my life for a short (hopefully) season and to emerge on the other side both healthy (proved to be true!!) and wiser(still wondering...).
Any time you step out of the stream that is your life, it's not just you who is affected.  My friends, co-workers, neighbors, parents, siblings, husband, and children were all affected by my absence.
12 months later...fully engaged in "re-entry", I can see that the marks that my exit (even though it was temporary) left are deep.  The places I go, the projects I pour myself into, and the people I love all show the signs of my exit and my re-entry.


I'm so grateful I got to re-enter, 
      that my story is one of coming back.
But there have been plenty of times when it hasn't.
When I've turned around, walked away, and just kept walking...
Because I couldn't handle all the questions that come with re-entry.
I wonder what you're avoiding because it feels too awkward or painful or questionable to move toward it?
Go ahead, turn back, jump in, make the phone call, send the text, pick up the thread of the conversation.
You never know what might be waiting...
it just might be the better version of you, 
         the very thing you've been looking for.