Nuages

Nuages (Fr.)/ Clouds (Eng.) noun: a mass as of dust, smoke, or steam, suspended in the atmosphere.

The more I learn, experience and grow, the more I realize that I really don't know life at all. I have always thought that the purpose of life was to be happy. Yet a very wise friend of mine challenged this theory with her own, "I am convinced that the only purpose in life is to grow" she said.

I have been capturing the life lessons, inspirations, bits of wisdom, and sharing my own life's compass on this blog for a few years now.  I have been spending a significant amount of time cruising through the archives and finding that the things I wrote about three years ago still apply to me now, yet in a different context. Last week, I naively thought, "I have shared all there is to share." And then very soon thereafter, I realized that life is never fully realized. Just when we think we are content and satiated, we are given the gift of a challenge or better yet, the opportunity to evaluate and enhance.

It is commonly theorized that the song Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell is about innocence and wisdom all at once. It is extremely moving to listen to her perform the song in 1970 with the outlook of innocence, and then again in 2000 with the maturity that comes from living life through all of its joys and pains.

Here is the original:




And again thirty years later:



I used to think that life was full of possibilities and that I could have and experience anything that I wanted to have or experience. And now? My older self and my younger self are realizing that this outlook still applies to me, albeit somewhat cloudier as I evaluate and redefine what it is that I want.