My children surprise me all of the time, (although rarely by cleaning their room, but that’s a different post.) They shock me with their creativity. Astound me with their intellect. Stun me with their compassion. Basically my kids for the whole of their existence have been amazing me, and today was no different. Today my daughter announced that she had deactivated her facebook account. Now any parent of tweens and teens would probably respond the same way I did;  jaw drop to the floor, quick inhale of air, followed by a rapid double take. I couldn’t believe it. Her facebook page…gone? The page that I could barely get her away from at night, in the morning, afterschool, EVER! Gone?! How could this be? She said that since Facebook switched to timeline many of her posts from years past have been turning up in her feed. That made her think about how the World was seeing her today influenced by yesterday, and she didn’t like it. She said:

“I feel like I have grown a lot (since I first made my facebook page), and I don’t want my past to tag along. I need to let it go. If and when I create a new page I want it to be a fresh start.”

Yoda say, young child very wise.

Monday’s are usually my health and wellness post day. Often I write about my personal journey to lose weight. Thanks to nutritionist David Grotto I was finally achieving some actual success in the Fall of last year. But then my life got in the way. Finances had me tied in knots of fear. My personal life had me deeply depressed. My stress level went through the roof. Add it all up and the sum is pounds, (as in more of them). I have been so distraught about what feels like a huge failure on my part. I’m embarrassed, humiliated, ashamed and so very, very tired. I have been brooding all day today because I felt like I needed to write a post to confess my shortcomings. My best friend scolded me this morning, telling me not to be so hard on myself. (Coincidentally something she has to tell me nearly every day-go figure.) But the voices in my head were hounding me with negative statements. Not new statements, old ones. Ones that have been in my head since I was a slightly overweight kid bullied in school, to an ostracized teen, to an exploited adult.  Voices in my head getting louder and louder all day long. That is until a little voice drowned them out with a big piece of wisdom. When I paraphrase her statement it becomes a mantra that is worth chanting:

“I don’t want my past to tag along. I need to let it go.”

Out of the mouths of babes.

I may have made some mistakes and fallen off my path, but that was yesterday. Today is a new day. So, tonight I am taking my daughter’s youthful, but sage advice. No beating myself up. No harping on past mistakes. No allowing them to tag along with my present. I’m letting go and starting fresh. How about you?

SMILE On!

ML

Miss Lori can be found Musing from her Minivan at MissLori.TV , Wearetherealdeal.com , YoungChicagonista ,ChicagoMomsBlog , and ChicagoMoms.com. You can also see her Activating to Be Great at Miss Lori’s CAMPUS on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter , TOUT and LinkedIn. Miss Lori participates in the Clever Girls Collective, Social RevUp and Collective Bias Social Fabric networks. She is also a Nintendo Enthusiast. A Tropicana Tropimomma, and a FitFluential Ambassador.