New day, new week, new month and a new opportunity to render the looming five months of this year more meaningful than the first.
Consider re-energizing yourself just because…because you’re worth it.
Try – or start again with- enjoying everyday, abstaining from complaining, believing the best and exemplifying The Golden Rule.
Choose to try – or start again with – reaching for the sun so you’ll land among the stars; viewing setbacks as “set-ups” for amazing opportunities; celebrating every achievement with gratitude; giving thanks for the shoulders upon which you stand; appreciating the blessing in every life lesson; embracing others as they are and where they are (and extending that same grace to yourself).
Recognize the many “presents” that the present is providing; live on purpose and in your purpose, and have fun along the way. Each day really is a gift; do your best to enjoy it and invite others on the journey with you.
Won’t be easy all the time, but it will be worth your efforts at every turn – and hopefully contagious.
Years ago, I had an interesting conversation with an acquaintance last week about purpose, contentment and living fully.
We asked each other, “What do you love most about your life?”
For both of us, our answers were evident in our actions – where, with whom, and how we spend our time.
What about you?
If you can answer with one or more truths, you’re blessed. No one’s journey is perfect; yet, in both mountaintop and valley seasons, there’s something to be grateful for. So our answers should match our energy and be evident in how we’re flowing.
The joy comes in finding the grace to accept yourself, and others, as-is while nudging yourself to do and be your best.
I say… go for it! “Let your true self reign – you might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you will be many people’s glass of champagne.” ~ Aine Belton
When I was child back in the day, you could drive up to a gas station and someone would pump your gas for you.
You would just pull up to the pump and an attendant would come out to your car. All you had to do was roll down your window (and I do mean roll) and say, “fill’er up.”
By the time I learned how to drive, the new thing was “self service,” which meant you had to get out and pump your own gas.
I don’t like to pump gas. I’ve tried to convince my husband that this should be his job, but to no avail. I have even figured out how long I can drive around on fumes once the “almost empty” fuel sensor light comes on.
Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that driving until your tank is empty can mess up your car. It leaves room for “junk” to build up in your tank, and it can cause your fuel pump to overheat and wear out more quickly.
I think you know where I’m going with this…
What happens when we continually live on empty, refusing to refuel at appropriate times or even when the warning light comes on?
Sometime last year, just before our world became engulfed in a global health pandemic, I read a book titled Leading On Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion. It was penned by Wayne Cordeiro to help pastoral leaders who are suffering from burnout, but you could easily re-title this book Parenting On Empty or Working On Empty or Praying On Empty or Loving On Empty.
I think if we called it Living on Empty it would speak to all of our situations. For those of us who spend a significant portion of our time serving others (whether it’s your profession, vocation or just who you be), living on empty could be an adequate description of what we feel like on the regular.
Many a day we operate solely on fumes, just trying to get through the day, through bedtime or through the next crisis.
It’s so easy to put our own needs on the back burner. We have good intentions to go back and take care of them later. But somehow later never happens.
Living on empty happens when we are blessed with children who need our care. (They are demanding little creatures just by their very nature and before you know it, they have consumed our entire lives.) Or perhaps it happens when we are serving as a caregiver for a loved one who is ill. We want to be there and our efforts become all-focused on their wellbeing.
We don’t have the energy or the will to do something for ourselves.
Living on empty happens when our vocation is to serve people in our community, and as our nation has endured an economic crisis that has led to job loss and personal devastation, the amount of people needing to be served has increased significantly.
There is not enough time in our day to do all that needs to be done. The needs of others leaks into our private time and we don’t know how to shut them off or hold them back.
Where do we go to be refueled? When do we find time to fill up our tank?
Maybe we’re afraid if we turn our engine off, fearing that it won’t start back up. However, if we never turn it off for maintenance, it eventually will die out anyway.
We know these things. We understand that this is what self care is – turning off our engine (resting) and then making sure we pour back in to ourselves, to replenish the well from which we have been giving.
The thing we are not quite sure about most of the time is how did we get here in the first place? Why do we allow ourselves to run until we burnout?
These are questions we have to be willing to ask and seek to honestly the answer. Discovering your answers, and leaning into them, will change your life – and fill your tank – for the better.
As a wife, mother and grandmother, Valerie Henderson enjoys spending endless amounts of time with her family. As a minister, she loves assisting others as they journey through their faith walk. As a creative soul, she finds her greatest solace when she can retreat, craft and write.
Recent examples abound of how one can speak the truth with love,
choose to be a priority rather than an option,
and operate in integrity even when the consequences are steep.
Google Tabitha Brown, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Shacarri Richardson.
They’ve handled public dissing, downplaying of value, and rules-based punishment with integrity, and I’m sure you can think of others who’ve done the same.
Regardless of your view their personal choices, what seems to matter most is how they value authenticity and love on themselves;
and when we all learn to hold our heads high while giving others grace, acknowledge our humanity and our worth, and own our missteps with plans to course correct,
we’ll know that we’re capable of rising, and we’ll realize that whatever the fallout, we’ve already won.
I’ve connected with quite a few writer friends this week and it has fueled my creativity in ways that I didn’t realize I missed so much during the pandemic.
Two of the catchups were one-on-one reunions over a meal, and both of those friends/mentors reminded me that writing is important work – to be leaned into, wrestled with, granted free reign, yet relented to with finesse, because words hold power and stories help us understand each other; and when we put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, sometimes we even surprise ourselves at the important truths, wounds, dreams, hopes, fears, strength and more that lie just beneath the surface.
Whether we’re writing fiction or nonfiction, that power – and responsibility – are the same.
My other gathering with writers was filled with amazing talent and wisdom too, and left me with an inner glow.
I share all of this to note that as I’ve spent time at my keyboard after hours and in the wee hours of morning this week, editing others work and also nurturing my own work-in-progress, I’ve felt more grateful than ever for the gift of words and writing, and for the opportunity to speak to the world in a manner that can endure.
What part of your purpose or your journey are you most grateful for this week? Acknowledge it and celebrate it in some way.
I’m sharing this “public service announcement” to persevere for whoever needs it (and just know, that sometimes it’s me).
If it’s not you today, pass it on!
Keep breathing – your deep-in-the-valley season is just a pitstop.
Keep dancing – the swirling storm will find it harder to touch you.
Keep believing – beauty can indeed be birthed from ashes.
Keep trusting yourself – you’re a prize worth cherishing, at home, at work and everywhere in between.
Keep paying attention – to your heart, to your gut, to what people show you rather than what they say, and to what you know to be true. Trusting yourself will never lead you wrong.
Keep laughing – it’s medicine for your soul, and everything doesn’t have to be so serious.
Most importantly? Just keep on keeping on.
I promise you, your best days are ahead, no matter your age, stage or circumstances.
Your job is to persist in excellence, love with an open heart, set appropriate boundaries, welcome peace and treasure your joys.
I’m living proof (and there are so many tangible examples around) that it’s all doable. Join me on this Life Untapped journey in your own way and in your own time. Just promise me, and yourself, that you’ll keep going.
What makes your heart smile? What gives you peace? What causes you to giggle or experience child-like joy?
What clears your mind or sparks your creativity?
What is the one thing you can’t live without? (For me, that’s writing. It fills me and flows from me, even though some of it’s terrible and never sees the light of day.)
Be still today and seek to better know God. Then, get still and seek to better know you.
Because God created you individually and singularly, your taking time to understand and better appreciate yourself honors Him, too.
As much time as we spend learning others’ needs, wants, habits and desires, we owe it to ourselves to journey inward, too.
One of the things I love most about spring is that its arrival serves as a tangible reminder that “not now” doesn’t mean “not ever.”
The sunnier and warmer days of this season are rewards for pressing through the previous months of darkness and cold – a season that was perhaps ordained to be a period of hibernation, rest and regeneration – a time to prepare for our longed-for successes, new opportunities or next level ahead.
As you lean into whatever this season brings for you, remember that most “overnight” successes have toiled in the winter of their own making for years and years – keeping their vision before them, getting up, pressing forward and saying “thank you” in advance, so that when their blessing or victory arrived, they could declare “Welcome! I’ve been waiting for you, with open arms.”
If you aren’t quite there yet, keep going and preparing. The good you do along the way won’t be wasted. It is watering your path, building your legacy and inspiring all you touch.
According to writer Leo Buscaglia: “Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions.
The first question was, ‘Did you bring joy?’
The second was, ‘Did you find joy?’
On this first day of February and throughout this month, choose to do both – bring joy to the lives of others in simple and profound ways, while gifting the same to yourself.
Do this consistently and intentionally, and watch yourself, and those you touch, flourish.
Still Unfolding with Stacy Hawkins Adams 