Collection

ON WRITING

The act of writing comes a bold release.
What might have felt stuck or unformed--thoughts jumping around inside of our minds--are now free...
In simply writing the words, there is no guarantee.
Not of greatness or eloquence--there is not even the promise that what is said will always be something that we, ourselves, love.
But that was never the journey, never the point.
It is the act of writing.
It is recording our truths as we know them today--in this hour, in this minute.
It is being bold, growing confidence, and remaining committed to the daily journey of becoming.
With no fear of failure, no looking back.

ON OBITUARIES

Maybe it sounds morbid, but I've always been fascinated by obituaries.  A whole life summed up in a couple of paragraphs.  The thing is, there's no way to capture everything about a person.  So you only get the stuff that simply can't be left out. 
What and who they lived for. 
I like to think that, if you were to put a piece of paper in front of me today, I could write out the few lines that will tell the story of my life.  Even if just to challenge myself to say, 'You watch.  I may get a lot wrong, but I'm going to get the most important things right.'
When I look across the whole landscape of my little corner of the world, there are plenty of places that I fall short...sometimes, I can let some of the commitments I've made slip through my hands.
But there are other commitments--the big ones--that I hold onto with everything I've got.
Those commitments I've made that I won't compromise.  My non-negotiables.
No matter how much the details and circumstances of my life may change, and no matter what storms come my way, you watch: I'm going to get those right.
Want to know the truth? 
It's not easy.  It's not perfect either.  But then again, nothing worthwhile ever is.
In the middle of the grind we can become distracted by all the noise...by status, by what kind of car we're driving or getting our kids into the right sports teams or who said what. 
These are all small things, but it's death by a thousand paper cuts to your sense of purpose.  It's different for everyone, and we're all susceptible to losing sight of what matters most.  Especially in a world that's constantly fighting for our attention.
That's the real battle, the one that goes on inside of our hearts every single day.
When I start to feel the pressure of a world that is trying to sway or dictate my behavior to make one of my non-negotiables negotiable, I go back to the list of things in my life that are an unwavering part of who I am.  It took me a while, but do this enough times and you start to realize the importance of safeguarding what matters to you most.
Because I've seen the way it plays out.  People who are willing to negotiate everything can end up standing for nothing.  People who hold fast to their non-negotiables, on the other hand, erase the space between who they are and who they want to be. 
And when it comes to their obituaries, there's no question about what it will say.

ON COMMITMENTS

Summer has a way of shaking things up for all of us.
As we step into a season so inherently suited for seeing things in new ways, maybe our commitments can be one of them.
So that we can tell how they've shaped our place in this world.
So that we can remember that purpose isn't found in one sweeping gesture but in the daily forging of a devoted life.
So that we can trust that our commitments aren't what hold us back, but are the very things holding us up.