Blessing in Disguise

I've been thinking a lot about simplicity and ease, and the sheer lack of it in our very complex and grieved world. There are so many people, who for different reasons, cannot afford to just exist or even hope for better days as so much of their current context seems bleak. I can't imagine what life would look and feel like without hope and without some level of grounding in the present, but the truth is that so many people are experiencing this right now. Sometimes I am out of breath and out of words and out of ideas on how to persist in the way that our world is moving. But somehow, the rhythms of the everyday feel like a hopeful resistance and like a privilege and an opportunity I need to cherish. I cherish this opportunity because I know my life depends on it, because it feels countercultural to do so, and because I know my home and my hope is not in this current moment or in this present existence.

I choose to see the life I can live, the life I choose to live, as a gift and as a way to make space for the legacy I want to create and to uplift the causes that matter. Even when it hurts, when it seems impossible to go on, or when it appears as if the struggle will not end, there is joy in the mundane, and the ordinary is a privilege. I count myself blessed to witness it--we all should. When my feelings seem too big to fit into a particular environment, I get to choose a different one or take up a different way of showing up--whether with music, with words, or with affection. When my different way of showing up isn't received quite in the way I would like, I can choose to remove myself from that environment or open up to different people who would appreciate my wholeness. There's something to be learned each day and each day that we have the chance, it's worth seizing.

There's a few lessons I've learned about taking up the space of being your authentic self and about living in the standard rhythms of life that I'd like to share:

1. Each day is a new opportunity to be the best version of yourself

2. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything

3. At different stages of life, the people at your table may need to change

More to come. For now, I'll let those sink in.