How many of us spend most of our precious life self-sabotaging and self-denying our most authentic selves? How often do you hide from your deepest desires or suppress and stuff away beautiful parts of your being? All too frequently, we deny ourselves and edit our stories to make ourselves sound more put together than we may feel – we sugarcoat or blatantly leave out parts of who we are due to shame or feeling like who we are is not good enough. We ignore and tuck away the parts of ourselves that, if brought into the light with love, make us powerful and radiant. Our stories make us who we…
Embracing The Mess
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Masks
As we near Halloween night and prepare to put on our costumes and masks, I am wondering about the masks we wear throughout our lives to hide our truest selves. What does yours look like? What does it feel like? Have you forgotten what you actually look like underneath the facade or do you remove it regularly and take a good long look at who you really are? We take on external identities and learn from a young age who we are supposed to be and, more importantly, who we are not supposed to be. We are taught what is acceptable and what is forbidden. We are taught what to…
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Meet In The Middle
Imagine you go to a ballpark to watch a baseball game and sit down in the stands with your hotdog, eager for the game to begin. You know all the stats about both teams and are excited to watch how the game will unfold. Then, as the umpire yells, “play ball!” you sit up straighter in your seat, excited to see who is first up to bat… But, to your surprise, nobody comes onto the field. Instead, you see the two teams huddled in their respective corners, yelling across the field at each other, arguing over the rules of the game and who is right or wrong, not willing to…
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Ask These 5 Questions To Deepen Your Interactions – Finding True Connection
When I was a little girl, I was lonely. Hell, I still get lonely sometimes. Growing up in a broken family, being ten years younger than my only sister, and striving to live up to the people around me, I struggled to connect with my peers, constantly feeling out of sync with the world around me. Each year, the night before school began, I remember squeezing my eyes shut, intertwining my tiny fingers, and praying, begging, to have a best friend and to be understood. I desperately wanted to feel supported and seen. While I no longer beg for connection and have created meaningful and deep relationships around me, I still…
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Freedom
I don’t know about you, but I want to be free. And I don’t just mean having the ability to do as I please. I mean living a life profoundly and entirely my own, defined by no one else’s expectations, judgments, or narrative. I want to live in a world where every day is entirely my own. No matter what happens around me or to me, I am still whole. I am not defined by my external reality but by my internal conviction of self. I have everything I need inside of me. And you know what is so amazing and silly and dumbfounding about that idea? It is already a reality! We already…
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Our Stories Make Us Human
Most mom/parenting blogs I have stumbled across and are the most popular are written by mothers who have a loving partner and two or three kids in a lovely home in a nice neighborhood. They tend to represent the white middle class and, more often than not, have religious undertones in their writing. Another annoying piece of the story is that many of these blogging moms love to craft and make home projects, putting those of us with less crafting ability to shame. While this a great niche, and there are plenty of helpful tips, relatable stories, and interesting insights, I wonder where all the other mothers are. I want…
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Nobody Is Perfect
Everybody feels like their life is a mess sometimes. Even the people who appear to have their lives together on social media and always post beautiful photos have places and things they are hiding from view. Nobody will get it perfect all of the time, and perfection should not be the goal. The goal is balance and peace of mind. The kitchen will get dirty, laundry will pile up, and the calendar will be bulging with activities and deadlines. The question is not whether your life is a mess or not; The question is, does the mess control you, or do you control the chaos? In the past few months,…
