I am walking with Cookie and Candy. As usual, I am a step behind them. I even try talking less to see if this permits me enough speed to match their stride.

It doesn’t work so I surrender to additional gabbing even if it does make me the obvious weak link in our exercise trio. In my defense, Cookie and Candy are out there every day. It is obvious that I could benefit from the same schedule.

While we chat, we normally exercise our thoughts with reflection. It often leaves me with some little nugget of wisdom.

I would label it ‘reflexercise.’ Only that almost makes it sound easy and believe me, keeping up with Cookie and Candy is not easy.

Today we are talking about the complexities of life and why we shy away from discussing them. Why do many of us feel embarrassed by aspects of our lives while others openly discuss them?

I take it all in because this is a subject I am familiar with. I am routinely asked, why I feel comfortable sharing the intimate details of my life.

Only this time, my thoughts answer that question differently. I do not explain the writer within me. Instead I reference my mother.

“My mother taught us to live a life of full disclosure,” I say. “She did not say this to us overtly, but instead it was the manner in which she lived her life. We did not hide from my father’s alcoholism or his absence. It was simply an aspect of who we were and our journey.”

In that moment, I catch myself and stop briefly. I often say, “there is a grand simplicity to the complexities of life.”

My mother taught me this. We all have different journeys and we all have different problems and we all experience less than perfect lives along the way. My amazing mother also taught me that…………..

Why would we ever be embarrassed by the life God gave us?