Just Messy & Beautiful Humans


The way God orchestrates our lives is pretty neat right? He picks a moment where you assume you know what's going to happen and he totally surprises you. I look back on this past year, a doozy of a year, and I just have to smile at all of the little things he's done for me and the surprises he placed in my path. 

I think back to April, the biggest surprise of them all, when I got into grad school in Oregon. I was so prepared to drop my life-long plans and pick a new life track once I received all of the wait list and rejection notifications. But then a crazy thing happened and I got into one of my top schools and in a state I've always wanted to live in! And now I'm here and absolutely in love with my cohort, my program and this state. 

Then I think back on this weekend. I was so consumed with one event happening and the build up associated with it that I almost didn't notice all of the love surrounding me. Suddenly I stopped and looked around and almost broke down by how loved and cared for I felt. All of these people have known me for 2.5 months or less yet it felt like a family. So the one event I thought was going to be life-changing, actually proved to be something else entirely and my eyes were opened to something even greater. 

I don't know what the next 2.5 months will bring but if they're anything like these last ones, I'm in for a wild ride. Being here in Oregon, reaching out to new people, trusting God, creating community, loving on people, and opening myself up to new experiences and adventures is what life is all about. And how exciting is that? 

We are all just people living our own little lives that are messy, beautiful, sloppy, and imperfect. One person's exterior is never really an indication of their interior. And when we allow ourselves to delve into other people's interiors and live life with them, there's this really special thing that happens called friendship and commitment. 

All of this is to say that I'm eternally grateful for the people in my life right now who show me friendship, love and commitment on a daily basis. Life is better with other messy humans, don't you agree?

To end, here's an excerpt from Brené Brown's TED talk on vulnerability. My friend shared it with our cohort the other day and it's SO good. Watch it HERE:

"But there's another way, and I'll leave you with this. This is what I have found: To let ourselves be seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen ... to love with our whole hearts, even though there's no guarantee -- and that's really hard, and I can tell you as a parent, that's excruciatingly difficult -- to practice gratitude and joy in those moments of terror, when we're wondering, "Can I love you this much? Can I believe in this this passionately? Can I be this fierce about this?" just to be able to stop and, instead of catastrophizing what might happen, to say, "I'm just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I'm alive." And the last, which I think is probably the most important, is to believe that we're enough. Because when we work from a place, I believe, that says, "I'm enough" ... then we stop screaming and start listening, we're kinder and gentler to the people around us, and we're kinder and gentler to ourselves."

Amen, right? 

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