"Good Grief, Charlie Brown!"

There seems to be something occurring at my house right now. Something about Cheez Whiz. I haven't really been able to figure it out. My response to this is generally "Good grief, Charlie Brown!" The strange thing about that, is the more I repeat the saying, but more I begin to feel like Charlie Brown.

The manner in which I mostly feel like Charlie Brown is the football that is constantly yanked out from under his feet. When I'm not ready for something, it is right there in front of me, taunting that I'm not good enough yet. I can see it, and I ignore it because it's not what I wanted then. The second I am ready for something, such as the right education, a relationship, a job, it is taken away the second I begin to run towards it. Perhaps this is merely a fact of life. I have a friend who had a similar thing happen to her when it came to her education. She's taking it in stride. But she has the relationship, which I admit, I'm rather jealous of.

I wonder how many things have become the footballs in our lives. The things we run after, but never really seem to be able to obtain. I wish it was only the things that other people have control over that we have found to be the things we lose, but it's not. Sometimes it's also the things we control that we are unable to really get at. Maybe it's easier to always see things we lose as footballs in other hands. It's easier for us to accept the fact that we have no control as opposed to accepting the fact we can change what has happened to us.

It would be so much easier to have our choices made for us, the ball pulled away before we get the chance to try. Sadly, life is only partially like that. Sometimes our choices are made for us. The chances we thought we had are taken away before we really have the chance to to make them. I wish that didn't happen so often, and yet sometimes I wish it happened more. It is the other times when we are forced to try and kick at the ball that are most terrifying. Those are the times when we have to try something and face the chance of failing. We can kick and miss, especially when we most want to make the right choice and succeed in the goals that we set.

The days when we get the choice, the chance, should we run at the ball, or simply wait until it is taken away? It's easier when the choice is not ours, but it is so much more worth it to take the chance. Even when we miss, we know that we have tried. We can miss, but we can also succeed. Sometimes in ways more extraordinary than we had ever imagined.