I’ve noticed that I feel 🌅calm, and that sounds a little crazy to me, given this 👻insane year. 2020 hasn’t been what any of us would have expected. There is no way we could have 📝written this storyline. Every time we think we’ve reached the 🎢climax and it’s time for that falling action, another character steps in to shake things up. Another unpredictable event happens. 😱The subplots are affecting us individually and globally. It’s a lot.😬
Yet, I’m 🌅calm. Most days- that is. Oh- sure- I have those days when I feel like I’m drowning. I definitely haven’t found that familiar groove at 🏫school- a place where everything is supposed to feel the same- but every little detail is different. 😵There are moments with groans of frustration or maybe a few 😥tears over life in general- especially when I’m exhausted or just feeling done with the day. Sometimes, I don’t know the next step to take, and I freeze.😳
Overall, I’m 🌅calm. I don’t think there is any one thing that brought my sense of serenity. I think it’s a combination of a few things, actually.✔ Part of it has to be that I have lived long enough to experience many 🌷beautiful and 😈terrible things. Life keeps moving along- and bringing me with it. I’m here for a reason. 😇I may not know what that reason is yet, but I know this because I should have died years ago from a severe medical trauma. When you survive a life-threatening situation, you don’t question anymore. You just live- and you pay attention.💖 (Curious? Read my book- LIFEGUARD http://bit.ly/LIFEGUARDBOOK-available on Amazon.)
Another piece to my tranquility puzzle was decluttering my life. Ken and I talked for the last couple of years about downsizing because we just didn’t need that much space anymore. Our youngest daughter is the only child still at 🏠home, and she wanted to be a part of the process. With Angelina and her Pinterest account on board, the three of us set out about a year ago to 💞donate, ♻sell, and ✔toss most of our furniture and many belongings- keeping the things that meant something to our family. 💖My grandmother’s trunk. 💖Way too many photos. 💖Childhood mementos. 💖Pieces from our past that held special meanings. We built a new house in a new neighborhood and filled it with fresh, new things. We scaled down the overflow stuff that we once thought was important. Guess what? It was just stuff. The 💖memories aren’t any less significant without it. We found that we didn’t need all of the stuff to feel fulfilled and happy. Honestly, we discovered the opposite to be true.🔎
Having less stuff is calming. 💯It is peaceful to look around a room that doesn’t feel busy. We don’t miss any of it. As a matter of fact, we now feel like we could trim the fat even more! It’s freeing in an odd sort of way. 🙌The stuff just got in the way.
Strangely, the lockdown also fine-tuned my sense of 🌅calmness. I’ll explain. I had these bonus weeks with my husband and daughter that I would never have had without it. Our typical weeks involve a whole lot of work and 🏫school and activities and 💻responsibilities- you know exactly what I’m talking about. We were forced to ❌stop, which allowed us to breathe without feeling that tug of guilt. We found time to 📚read and 🍪bake and watch movies and do puzzles- things that would have seemed frivolous before in our hectic lives. I had the chance to 💻FaceTime my older kids- who were also locked down in their homes in other cities- daily to chat about everything and nothing. 💖We were healthy. 💖We were making a difficult situation work.💖 And, we had time with each other, which was a 🎁gift- regardless of the reason.
For me- ✨life experience, ✨removing the excess, and ✨slowing down my world worked together to 🔎magnify a sense of peace. I couldn’t have written this narrative. I had to live it to appreciate it. They say that 👀hindsight is 2020. In my case, that’s true. That 👀hindsight for me translated into insights that led to a sense of 🌅calm.
What if…we find calm? Feeling 🌅peaceful is not overrated. It does take some work, though. I didn’t wake up one day with that tranquility. 🔑I paid attention.🔑 I took some risks. 🔑And, I found the gifts in the difficult moments. Where will you find your calm?💖
sharing the stairs 