Change

I have had a friend staying at my place the last week and it made me realize how much I appreciate my few moments of solitude. Do not get me wrong, our friend is a fantastic guest and company but I am looking forward to having things back to normal next week.

Earlier in the week, I was thinking about how nice next week was going to be and then it dawned on me that my view on solitude has changed. I could not help but chuckle. The word solitude means alone or single. I have not been alone or single for over 5 years. My view on this word has changed. Five years ago my excitement was for complete dictionary definition solitude and now solitude includes my wife. It is funny how the little things change. My adjusted definition is proof that I am married to my soul mate. It must be a sign.

As a child, I was never 100 percent confident in my abilities to do anything perfectly correct. I would frequently do something and then ask for a sign from God to prove I did it correctly. I never asked for earth shattering signs because I was never confident God existed and if he did, why would he waste his time turning the sky purple just to tell me that I had chosen the correct answers on my grade school quizzes. I asked for little signs like, "if this is the correct answer then make the classroom clock bell ring at the top of the hour as it did every hour or if I am not correct make the clock stop working completely." I always wanted to give God choices. If neither one happened, I knew he was too busy. The funny thing is that I was a straight C student. It was comforting to know that God scored average on grade school quizzes as well. He saved his real powers for much bigger things.

Nowadays, I am more confident than I was as a child. I would be a complete liar though if I said I did not still ask for signs from time to time. I think we all do. The signs I use today are based upon the sheer amount of happiness I have in my life.