So this week I got to see Jen Hatmaker speak.
And she’s just as good in person as she is in her blog. Funny. Smart.
Loved her.
And I had this moment a lot of us have when we look at people on Facebook. You know that wistful “Looks so great Wouldn’t THAT be fun” moment.
But then I wondered what it would REALLY be like to have her life…to raise 5 kids AND speak AND write AND be a pastor’s wife AND balance it all with decisions that can’t be made without taking something away, and…would I really want that life? Makes me want to take a nap just thinking about it.
Pluses and minuses every life has.
But I do love her.
And I envy her ability to wear those big, great earrings and pull off the ear mic.
Haven’t been able to do it.
But love it.
The crazy thing is that while I was watching this Jen speak, another Jen was in town that 30 years ago (as a UCLA theater major) I would have been much more interested to see.
Of course at that time she was only in Jr. High.
Jennifer Aniston was at the Arlington theater getting the coveted Montecito award for doing the no makeup drug role that finally got people to look past her hair.
Haven’t seen it.
But I do like her.
In my former life I may have struggled with wanting to be her.
But if I followed her home and felt her pressure of lights and camera on every relationship, breakup, wrinkle and pound I wonder if I’d really want that life.
Pluses and minuses every life has.
Even the ones we ogle. They all have angles that we can’t see.
So the thing I came away with this weekend was
I actually have a life.

And it’s the one I’m supposed to stay in and live.