You don’t have to burn it all down.

You can shape your life one day, and one choice, at a time.

I’ve spent the better part of the past ten years learning how to, and practicing, being present in the reality of my life while at the same time remaining open to what’s possible.

Our normal, beautiful lives are full of complexity; and a constant flow of highs and lows. The human experience is so very magical, and unpredictable.

It is easy to get pulled into the current,
swept away to places we don’t want or are unprepared for.

Before we know it, we can lose ourselves in the complexity.

We can ever so slowly disconnect from who we are, and what we really want. And if we aren’t careful, the years will go by and instead of focusing on what matters most, we find ourselves living a life that feels overcommitted, overwhelmed, and often, unfulfilled.

It becomes harder for us to stay in the moment,

to quiet the noise so that we can hear our own voice,
to discern what we want, and what we don’t,
and then make choices, big and small…even when we aren’t sure or are deeply afraid.

Almost every person I speak with, personally or professionally, is living with some kind of complexity in their life, regardless of their age or stage.

And all of them are working hard to figure out how to align their life and work around what matters most while also managing the day to day realities that exist in their lives.

It's hard.
Really fucking hard.

So very many of us are sacrificing in ways that are unnecessary, just because we think we are supposed to. We have been conditioned to believe that we should be grateful for what we have and not to ask for more.

We deny ourselves the things we secretly want and desire because we can’t quite figure out how to get them, and we fear that to go after them would upset the very balance of our lives.

It is so easy….

…easy to get lost in the swirl and speed of our lives, and forget that we have more choices available to us than we can imagine.

…easy to disconnect from the truth of what we want, instead defaulting to a life designed around what we believe it is supposed to be

or what it has always been.

…easy to stay in the comfort of what is, rather than step into the unknowing of what might be.

My beautiful friends, our work is to stop denying and sacrificing unnecessarily;
to remember that we deserve a life of joy and fulfillment,
and to give ourselves permission to want more of whatever it is we desire.

Our work as women is to support each other to speak our truth, even when it is deeply uncomfortable, or frightening;
to hold a vision for what’s possible,
and to make one brave choice at a time that moves us closer to it,
all while remaining present in the life we are living.

We don’t have to burn it all down,
we can instead shape it as we want one, and one choice at a time.