The waiting room.

(Jan. 7, 2011) Someone once told Jane that life is like a series of rooms (no, not a box of chocolates; although, that would be quite delicious). Doors — they are either opening on their own, being opened or being closed by another. Jane is either being pushed through them, or she is jumping through them — sometimes right before they seal themselves shut.

Someone also told her to always try to be in the right place at the right time. And someone else told her to stay put, grow roots somewhere. But what does Jane say? What statements about living life has Jane made that have impacted others the way foreign comments have weighed on her own decisions?

Jane suggests not giving up before one begins. Don’t throw in the towel before breaking a sweat. Jane has always spoken about listening to her insides. She is an advocate for tuning in to her gut instinct and willing her head to be quiet. Jane believes that wherever she has been in life, whether she was arriving or leaving, she has been directed there.

Sometimes Jane has felt the rug pulled from beneath her in a situation that she thought was actually going to stick. The first time this happened was shocking to her. She was comfortable and happy. Or so she thought. Turns out, she wasn’t where she should have been. She was turned on her heel and facing a new path. What was Jane to do but continue in a new direction? It felt worse to force it back in the once-familiar route.

Some leave a place or take a next big step only after something they had in one place has fallen apart. But Jane suggests, don’t let things fall apart before you make a move. Instead, take it all with you, in one piece.

Now that Jane is accustomed to such occurrences in her life, she is familiar with the signs — the subtle hints that tell her to hop onto another train and ride it out until she must again switch lines. It is one thing to stay in a place because in it one has found everything she has wanted, and quite another to stay simply because it is safer than actually going out and finding what one wants.

Leaving, for Jane, can be bittersweet. The things at which she once narrowed her eyes or felt weren’t good enough begin to take a back seat to the things that stand out to not be so bad after all. And the things that used to get under her skin seem almost tolerable if she believes she has a choice to either stay or go.

Because of this, Jane likes to live each day as if she were leaving tomorrow. Not as if it is her last day alive; yet she lives it as if she won’t be in the same place forever. In the rooms of her life, Jane chooses not to sit in the waiting room hoping for her name to be called. Instead, Jane carries with her a Sawzall — and begins to create the next room that she might need.