The Things that Shape Us

 

Thanks so much, everyone, for the Abby-love yesterday! I have to say that before and after pictures are among my favorite things in life, so I was so happy to get to share them with you! We are excited to see what adventures come our way in the years to come with our Shafferland Shuttle named Abby!

I'm also excited that my friend Amber is making us a sign to hang up in the camper. She's been drawing out some sketches and I love all of them so far. (Makes it hard to choose.) Can't wait to show you that when it's done, too!

I've been prepping to share about how to write your story, which is one of my big passion messages. It makes my heart sing when people want to embrace their stories (the good and the bad of them) and preserve them for future generations to see the faithfulness of God. 

I went through my first session and felt that beautiful (good) fire welling up in my soul, and when I finished prepping, I happened upon a Pinterest post about writing your life story. I clicked on it, just to see how the writer's message was similar to and different from mine. I found a list of questions to ask yourself as you prepare to write about your past, and one of them said this: What world events were significant to you as a child?

While I'm not sure I paid great attention to world events on the whole, I do remember the first major news event I recall living through in my lifetime, which was the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. I was a second grader when that happened, and while my memory is a bit fuzzy on this part, I do think I had some clue that there was about to be a shuttle launch and that a teacher was on board this mission. My parents watched the news every night, and I think I'd seen some information about that leading up to the day of the launch. 

Some classes watched it live, I know, but ours did not. We were actually in music class at the time. Our music classroom was under renovation, so our music teacher had to load up all her supplies on a cart and push it from regular classroom to regular classroom to hold her classes. Looking back now, I can only imagine what a magnificent challenge that must have been for her. Traveling meant she couldn't take her piano or many of the other instruments she kept in her room. I'm sure it was a complete pain. 

She was also pregnant and I don't think she felt well most of the time. That day she seemed to be a little bit grumpy (and you can see all the reasons she was allowed said grumpiness) and somewhere in the middle of music class, the principal interrupted the entire school with the announcement of what had just happened and encouraged us to take a moment of silence in remembrance of the lives lost.

I remember that she sat down in our teacher's chair and I don't recall that she said anything else for the rest of class time. I'm sure it was awkward. How do you resume music class (of all classes) after such a tragedy? You can't just break back into the notes of Mary Had a Little Lamb after that news. And what do you do with a whole class of curious and confused second graders that aren't yours full-time?

That night I did see the footage on the news, and that was the first time the stories of people grabbed me. I remember making a little construction paper scrapbook about the astronauts on board. I cut out newspaper clippings and magazine articles and glued them inside. I wrote about the heroes that died that day, and somehow that little construction paper book (tied with yarn) comforted me. I felt I had honored their lives in the best way I knew how by preserving their names and stories. 

And really, that was the beginning of what I'm still passionate about today. I still ache for people to grab hold of their stories and believe that they matter and are worth preserving. And you don't have to be an astronaut for your life to matter.

YOUR life and story matters. 

Those astronauts shaped me that day. Their stories shaped mine, and now mine can shape others. 

Yours has shaped mine, too. Who has shaped you?