What is required?

A lady that I was waiting on at work one day, when I poured her ice water, told me that she would “require water with no ice.” As I went back to the server station to get water sans ice, I felt the writer irritation in me growing. One does not REQUIRE water with no ice. It is not necessary to sustain life, you prefer it, you would like it, but no one requires it. I have thought of that lady many times since, as in her ordering she showed me just how many specific requirements she had, not only in her ice water, but where her bread was placed on the plate, not allowing the sides to touch her sandwich, etc. I have thought about what I require in this new life of mine. Certainly water with no ice is not one of them.
What I have found on my new journey is that my requirements to survival and happiness are quite simple. A good relationship with my amazing children. A roof over my head. A car to get me from Point A to Point B. A job that gives me the ability to pay for my bills. And I have come to realize that I require love. I want to love fully and deeply. This means forging a life that holds meaning and the opportunity to love.
As I was looking at schools to apply for grad school, I felt that dizzying feeling of opportunity. I remember when I was a kid and we would vacation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we would go to the copper mines. While there we would get to go into the general store and we were allowed to pick out one thing. I would stand in front of the flattened copper pennies, the large sticks of taffy, the giant braided lollipops. Each item held the promise of happiness and the decision was agonizing and delicious all at the same time. That is the exact feeling I have as I look at graduate schools. The decision is both tantalizing and delicious. So many things I want to do and accomplish, and all of the choices will allow me to work in a way that I feel I can possibly make a difference in the world. My mind is dizzy with the opportunities that lie before me.
Recreating a new life after living one way for so long has been a scary and tentative journey. I have made mistakes which hurt me to acknowledge, and yet I have also made choices that have begun to piece together a life that I can love. As I look around my new home it is filled with things that make my heart soar. There are no expensive pieces of art, or museum quality furniture. But each room is filled with things that make my heart happy. More over the people that come and fill the rooms fill them with love and laughter. I go to work at a job that I get to feel like I am coming in to share the day with my family. I get to encounter new people and approach each table as if I am about to wait on my friends. And school has given me the gift of stimulating a long ago dream of knowledge and a degree.
When I gaze back at what I have traveled over the last couple of years, I see that I have survived and even thrived. When I look at what lays ahead, my heart and mind are filled with a great sense of anticipation, hope and that thrilling feeling of picking the perfect item from the general store. Each thing that lays in front of my promises a measure of joy. The road is certainly not easy, and is often riddled with pain and pitfalls. However, there is also so much promise in each new day and each new opportunity. More than anything as I look around I see love everywhere. I don’t “require” much, just love, and the chance to make a way in this new life. And in this, all that is required of me, is to wake up, stand up, and just keep moving.