give up on that
tiny story shift | Day #42 - How to Be Still
there are things that bubble to the surface as we explore learning how to be still - in subtle, and sometimes invisible ways. this is one that continues to simmer for me.
I wonder, what might be bubbling to the surface for you?
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here is your gentle place to be inside this day. a reminder that there is freedom to be found in feeling what you feel on the inside, and living as you are on the outside.
this is (around) the forty-second entry in our current series, How to Be Still.
Sometimes I find it strange. The work of building a life that holds a career that is true and authentic to who I am. Perhaps peculiar is a better word. The truth is that my work doesn’t fit neatly into any one box. I don’t fit neatly into any one box. I never have. And deep inside, I think I know that I never will.
As time passes, I’m losing the remains of my lingering desire to force a fit. I’ve never been good at it; never been good at pretending, at small talk. Relationships and connections that skip along the surface. These are things that drain my inner peace.
In the past seven years or so, my love for my different has grown. But as this love takes root, in the recesses of my mind, in my thinking, I’ve always allowed the quiet expectation that I will eventually bend myself towards conformity to remain.
I’m witnessing myself giving up on that. Right now. In live time. Giving up my tenuous hold on the expectation that becoming more like what and who I am not will bring me joy, hope, or release. This sticky belief peeling through my fingers must be what it feels like for decluttering experts. Like a cleansing. An undoing of what never needed to be, that opens up room for seeds of hope to settle, and eventually, bloom.
Giving up can, in fact, be a very good thing.
Give up on pretending.
Don’t give up on hope that is rooted in everyday choices.
Give up on having all the answers.
Don’t give up on listening, learning, boundaries, and tiny shifts that transform.
Give up on perfection.
Don’t give up on trying and failing, climbing and tumbling, discovery and growth.
Give up on believing that the destination is all that matters.
Don’t give up on embracing the power of your journey.
Don’t give up
on
the story of you.