Dance real slow, take it all in.
Do you ever stop and think about life on a really deep level? It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day, mundane, do the same tasks everyday kind of mindset – but if you stop and sit for even just a moment and think about what led you to where you are today, it really is mind blowingly beautiful.
I think about our life like a story that will be told one day, and I want it to be something worth telling, something happy my kids and their kids can reflect on and be glad they were written into it.
People always talk about “romanticizing life”, but really to me it already is romantic. The little tiniest moments that seem insignificant are what give life its romance. It’s the staying up late talking with your person, even after thirteen years have gone by, and still getting butterflies when they get home from work. It’s watching your two babies take their first bath together and seeing how they smile at each other. It’s the hugs in the messy kitchen, saying “it’s going to be okay” even when life feels it’s heaviest.
The way our daughter stops and dances whenever she hears any kind of music, the way she doesn’t let us just sit and watch her dance, we have to get up and dance with her. The way she watches her own shadow when she’s dancing, looking at it with so much curiosity and how you can see it on her face that she’s trying to figure it out.
The theme of our year has been nothing but big decisions, hard conversations, difficult choices, and lots of lessons learned – but in the midst of what has felt like our toughest year, we’ve had a lot of really life changing beautiful moments too.
I think it’s important to recognize that you can simultaneously have some of the most incredible moments while also going through really difficult ones. Life isn’t this black and white, good or bad, scenario. It’s far more complex than that.
Becoming a mother has really made me a stronger person (I know, sounds super cheesy) but even just taking the experience of giving birth (more on that to come) and applying what I’ve learned through that to life itself has really given me a new perspective; When the surges of pain in life crash over you like a wave, instead of fighting that feeling and being afraid of it, imagine yourself riding the wave, knowing it’s going to bring you closer to something far greater than the pain itself, you will come out on the other side of it.
If you find yourself feeling stranded or in the middle of nowhere in your life story, keep going, keep riding it out.
Turn up your favorite songs, and have an actual dance party in your living room. By yourself, with your family, with your dog – whatever season of life you’re in. Let yourself feel what you’re feeling, and know that the best moments in life wouldn’t feel as good as they could without the dark seasons and difficult days too.
Take a deep breath, and take it all in.
