We all come to terms with things in our lives. Some people call it a phase. Some call it a mid-life crisis. Whatever you want to refer to it as it’s something big in your life and it will have lasting effects on the rest of your life.
I sure hope that doesn’t come across as deep, but it is what it is.
As I sit down to write this, I’m finding it a real struggle to put things into words.
Late last year, and earlier this year, I shared with you that we were taking a break from The Church. It was a large part of our lives for more than 10 years. In fact, one could argue it was our life. Almost everything in our life was ruled by activities on certain days and nights. We also had to do this, or that, or read and study something coming up. It became somewhat second nature to be ruled by rules.
But for some, it was great. They were doing it because they genuinely believed. Trust me when I say how awesome that is.
What I/we needed to know for ourselves was if we were being genuine. It took us a long time to come to the understanding that we weren’t. So, what were we to do?
Study more! Wait, what? That’s right. When we would ask others we knew what we were thinking or the questions we were contemplating, we were always pointed back to studying it out. The answers were always there. BUT THEY WEREN’T. At least when we went to look.
Now, let me get something straight. When I made mention of asking those we knew… really, the only people we knew were those we went to church with. We didn’t have people in the outside world. They were bad and would lead us astray. At least that’s what we thought. So when I said that our lives were pretty much ruled and dictated by church, I wasn’t stretching the truth. I was being 100% honest. We didn’t, and still don’t for the most part, have friends on the outside.
It struck us while on date night the other night. We were sitting there at a local micro-brewery enjoying a nice non-Mormon brew, we realized we don’t have friends we could share the moment with. Don’t get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with the company between us. After all, isn’t that the point of going on date nights? But I digress.
Fast-forward to this morning as I was getting ready for the day, a phrase popped into my head. Recovering Mormon. Just two little words. They hit me like a load of bricks. All day I tried to dismiss the thought. But, I’ve come to understand when you can’t get something out of your head, you need to dive into it. What is it? Where did it come from? And, why am I thinking about this? All of which are valid questions. So that’s what I did. I dove right on into my wee little brain and asked myself these questions.
Did I get all the answers I was looking for? That’s between me and myself.
What I will say is a simple Google search for the phrase “Recovering Mormon” will potentially be an eye-opening experience. One thing I’ll admit to learning is that there are subReddits for anything and everything. Yes, even for those recovering Mormons out there.
What does all of this have with where we started?
Let’s just sum it up by saying it’s time to make a move and move on.