I’ve been wanting to write this list since before my birthday. It’s not complete; it’s not perfect; it’s not in any particular order. But here are 29 things I’m learning, have learned, or just come to know over the last decade or less of my life.

I have a hard time making room for reflection because I just want to be doing the things I want to be doing. Attacking the to-do’s, reading the books, herding the kids. But I’m learning reflection is one important way that I can incorporate the actual things I’m learning into more everyday action.

Here are some light lessons, some bigger lessons touched on lightly, and some random things as well.

1. Books build up fast and are surprisingly easy to accumulate.
2. It is physically impossible for the dishes and the laundry to be done at the same time.
3. Getting a dog has been one of the best decisions we have ever made for our family.
4. We have way more than we need even on the days it feels like less.
5. There is room for each of us in this family. We get to pursue together wholeness and separate wholeness from each other.
6. Not all the things that are important to me will be important to someone else. But they are still important.
7. Different people do different things for different reasons.
8. We can’t ever know for sure what it’s like to live in someone else’s life or skin. Even though we often assume we do. We can only see the outside.
9. There is enough for everyone, room for our muchness, and space for space when we need it.
10. Fighting is not the end of the world. Sometimes people just fight and it’s ok. 99% of the time it will be fine. Ride the wave.
11. Hoodies last forever.
12. You will change your mind on all sorts of things. Sometimes it’s necessary to feel very strongly about something to find out the opposite might be true for you. It’s a journey.
13. We get to keep learning our whole lives.
14. We won’t ever figure it all out. I know. It hurts me to say this. haha.
15. There is always more time and less time than we think. It’s not about urgency or complacency, but more about presence.
16. Conflict in a relationship is never all about you. There is always a story running inside each mind that is helping or hindering the interaction. We are only in charge of our own story and giving people grace when our stories collide.
17. Kids are ridiculous, but also the best grace-givers when you mess up.
18. Fun, funny, and play are worth pursuing even if it feels irreverent or out of place with your staid existence.
19. It’s ok to quit things.
20. You don’t have to explain yourself to very many people.
21. Most people don’t care what you do in particular, they just care how it makes them feel inside what they chose or their constructs about how the world should work.
22. At the same have a special place of influence in the lives of people around us. Usually more than we know. Usually this influence is through actions and not through words.
23. God guides in many many many different ways. Sometimes it’s through things that look like guidance and sometimes it’s the small adding up of step plus step plus step.
24. If you know what you need you should ask.
25. It is ok to be how you are. Even if it’s not exactly how you’d like to be.
26. Life will never feel resolved. Sorry about that. But there is always peace somewhere.
27. Chocolate is best stashed and eaten one piece at a time. But you already knew that.
28. Every now and then it’s time to stop waiting already and just do the thing you’ve been thinking about. Try it out.
29. Books won’t solve your problems, but that’s all I have against them right now.

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Thanks for reading here. I’d love to hear from you as well! What have you learned lately? What was one of the most meaningful things you learned in your 20’s or 30’s or just whenever?

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