Overcast and a little squishy, but a great hike with friends today. Wild play, meaningful conversation, and almost christmas sage-scented air. Sometimes getting outside on gray and soggy days can feel a little counterintuitive, but it really does make the day brighter on the inside, even if some of us come home muddy and a little cranky about it.
#fiftyhikesofshirks2019 45/50
Sun-soaked.
#itssimplytuesday —
Today’s tuesday looks like reading, watching frost melt, supervising workbooks, soaking up sunshine, thanksgiving baking, christmas planning, and one early family gathering.
I can feel life ramping up for the holidays. I’ll need to choose my quiet moments more intentionally soon.
What is your favorite way to slow life down for the holidays? —
#wholetogetherfamily #thanksgiving #wholehearted #momlife #soulfullife
I kind of want to yarn-bomb the tree now, but it would get soggy 🤔
—
I have to remind myself that, here on instagram and in general, I don’t have to perform sadness.
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I can feel the way I do without worrying if I’m being too happy or too sad, too melancholy or too detached. Loss is not something I have to prove by how I act or something I can deny by allowing joy in, it simply is. It is the ache of losing someone you loved dearly. It is real any way you go about it. —
But it’s weird and strange and hard, weighing heavy inner feelings against how life looks on the outside. (Not to mention pausing to think about it all and share life on social media in a true way.) It’s a weird place of letting life be life, allowing the good to peek out even as all the tough stuff periodically drizzles on the parade.
It’s a puzzle I don’t have to solve, just mull over. —
Grief is communal and individual. We are meant to share it, circling up for reassurance in togetherness and belonging, but also to feel it inside our own spirits and bodies.
together. apart. expressively. quietly. slowly. quickly. intensely. gently.
Each unique in our needs for space, time, quiet, busy, distraction, reflection, meltdown, peace.
There’s no rule book or how-to book, as with most of life, by the grace of God, we all just get through it.
For me, i need to remind myself: it’s ok to feel what you’re feeling. It’s ok to choose how it looks.
It doesn’t really matter how it looks.
You can only be as you are through it all.
It’s the same for everyone in that it’s unique for everyone.
But there’s room and we can make space for all our feelings, needs, and nuances within it all, whether it looks as expected or not. —-
These thoughts feel a little rough still, not quite as figured out and clean as I might like, but sometimes I just need to write it out to think through it a little more. What about you? What would you clarify or add? —
#hopewriters #wholetogetherfamily
The goods: - plentiful books, cozy blankets, extra movie nights, flowers from my husband because he thought they looked like ones I liked (he was right😊), a hike with a dear friend who gets it, grocery shopping done, sunshiny art by my 4yo, and nothing officially on the calendar until thanksgiving.
I’m feeling the need to be gentle and generous with ourselves as we continue on after our difficult week. We’re easing back into normal routines, but also acknowledging that all of us are processing, tired, sad, overwhelmed or just plain muddled in different ways. Today we did more than I wanted to (groceries had to be gotten), but we made it through with all the bright spots. I’ll take it 🧡. What are a few of your goods for the day? How are you being gentle with yourself or your family?
#wholetogetherfamily #wholehearted #trysofter #erikareadsbooks #bookwomanoftroublesomecreek #momlife
