If we're honest, most of the time most of us don't know or don't understand. What if, instead of seeing this as a weakness, we could view not knowing as a superpower? It is, you know. When we go into a class or a conversation knowing that we don't know, not only are we more fun to be around, but we have more fun because we get to keep learning!
I was born with a stubborn streak a mile wide and throughout my life, it has helped me get a whole lot done. Funnily enough, these days I'm leaning heavily on my stubborn streak not to get things done but to help me go with the flow.
Is it possible to be as sad as one can be and filled with joy at the same time? Yes. In fact, it is possible that the heartbreak I felt to be celebrating my niece's wedding without my brother (her dad) amplified the joy I felt for her and her new husband. Her wedding proved to me that if we don’t let ourselves fully feel the sorrows of life, we simply cannot fully experience its joys.
Am I breaking up with To Do lists? Maybe? I'm definitely breaking up with the idea that my self-worth can come from getting everything on my list checked off. Life is more than a series of things that need to get done. Life is hiding in the little details and moments that happen as you do the things on your list.
I've been feeling a little overstimulated lately as autumn and it's busyness starts to ramp up. Can you relate? When we're feeling out of whack, it's rarely dramatic change that is needed to get ourselves back in balance. Mostly, a subtle adjustment will do the trick. It's also good to remember that balance is a verb. Rather than being something we find and maintain, it's something we're always working on.
Crunching into a pile of leaves on the sidewalk on a gorgeous summer morning was a reminder that - whether I like it or not - change is coming. In fact, it's been coming all the while. But just because I've acknowledged that fall is coming, doesn't mean I need to rush into it. I can take this change as slowly as it is happening.
It's easy to think that we have to be extraordinary or impressive in this world, isn't it? Thankfully, a bald eagle reminded me that this is not the case at all. I watched her for a week and didn’t see her doing anything spectacular. No dive bombing from impossible heights. No flying with an enormous fish in her talons. I’d just observed her doing the little “normal” things that all mothers need do and the awe I felt seems meaningful. She helped me remember that the wonder and beauty of simply living your one, little life is plenty.
When you keep secret all the ways that you are a mess inside, you're not protecting your friends. You're preventing them from really knowing you. Share your stories - the sad ones and the mad ones and the super funny ones. Knowing you (warts and all) is, in the end, all that your true friends want.
Over the last 29 years I've had to learn and relearn that my children are my teachers -- and that they're teaching me the most important lessons and challenging lessons of my life.