What I'm Learning | 11 Things I'm Reflecting On - Summer 2023

June, July, and August. 2023. 

Summer 2023 found me asking myself these questions: What do you love to do? What gives you purpose? Who are you? What are you all about? 

I found myself not knowing the answers to these questions, and that was a scary place to be. 

In no particular order, here are 11 things I learned and reflected on this summer: 

We all worry. We all worry about the unknown. We all have fears. Fears and worries thrive in the unknown and the uncertain.

 

Love takes a sustained intentional effort. It does not just fall in your lap. It requires all of you and more. It requires selflessness. Compromise. Humility. Patience. So much patience. An unrelenting desire to keep choosing one another. It is not just a feeling. It is an action, a deliberate choice.

 

I am human. I will make mistakes. And I have the freedom and the room to make mistakes. To grow. To err. To have a growth mindset not a perfection mindset.

Love is about what you can give, it's not about what you can take or what's in it for you.

Give me today my daily bread - meaning it is okay to ask from God. To receive. In order to receive, you have to ask first. Just bread enough for today. Not tomorrow’s, not this week’s, not this month’s. Just today. It is okay to ask God for what I need. To ask on behalf of others.

None of us is always at our best. We are all a little hard to love, neurotic. God still loves us despite how difficult we are.

It is important to play. To be a child again. To let my inner child be free to roam, play, get messy, roll around in the grass, and to make mistakes. The Ed Sheeran concert reminded me of how nice it is to just let loose and just be. Stop thinking and just be. 

One hour calls with close friends are a soothing balm for my soul. One hour is the sweet spot. Any longer than that, and my social battery dies. 

Time with myself is healing and necessary and sacred. Spending time with others is meaningful and fulfilling. When you’re still enough and stop for a second, you hear things and realize things and connect the dots. The voice inside can then speak. It can’t speak if I’m always busy or always with people. Time with myself is valuable and needed in my rhythms of life, no matter how much I think or believe otherwise. I rediscovered the joy and freedom and lightness and fulfillment in spending time with myself. It's been a long time since I enjoyed time with myself. 

Turning screens off earlier is something I should probably be doing to feel sleepier.