You are always on my mind

Emotions. People think that you ought to feel. Yes. And people think that one is supposed to want to participate in experiences that will allow you to feel and enjoy these emotive experiences. "You are always on my mind" drifts into my head. Who is you?

In the effort to live what I consider to be my best attempts at Christian living (this is my faith based response - not to knock anyone elses right now - so please don't knock mine...even when I am doing it wrong) I often encounter people that need me, want me to listen, need to be the "you" in this song. I pray for them. I am concerned for them. I need to help them. I need to spend quality time with them. This is essentially my best efforts to say that "you" are important and that you matter to me.

I have been informed from time to time that I spread myself too thin. That might be true. Being a social creature, I enjoy people. While I am not the funniest, the smartest, the best at anything really, I really enjoy spending that time that "you" have to spend with me. Admittedly, I have some odd quirks. I am not that person that will delve into personal stuff unless you volunteer information that leads into the deeper discussions. I do genuinely try to listen to "you" when you speak. If I call you, I wait for you to call me back. I am the person that likes to remember birthdays. I like to spend time with the children and their friends. I like to chat with my neighbours over the fence. Yes, I am busy...but never too busy to care.

For the record, I can take constructive criticism. Almost every performance evaluation that I have ever had says that. I acknowledge that I have room to grow and that I am not perfect. I have emotions and feelings, that are the same as everyone elses. I bury them a lot as I try not to upset the proverbial applecart. While I hear the messages and can understand the reasoning and logic, my humor might not be yours. That is OK for me.

But my question is this. When is it acceptable for the "you" in the song to be me? I am on a journey to become the best me I can be. Sometimes, that means that I need the you in the song to be me ...for me...God put me here for a purpose (sometimes that is ridiculously elusive) and I intend to do my best job. Sometimes...I get that wrong...I apologize.

It is okay to be different.