Author: gracesmuggler

We can become so task-oriented that we neglect being relationship-oriented.

We can become so busy with work that we neglect time for care, tending, and growing.

We can become so convinced our worth is wrapped up in productivity that we (temporarily) forget our worth is intrinsic to who we are and unmeasurable.

Our worth is not measured by our productivity.

That has simply never been the case. But we’ve internalized this somewhere.

Somewheres…?

capitalism,
the Protestant work ethic,
ableism,
scarcity-thinking,
urgency-thinking,
greed,
school culture,
family culture,
workplace culture,
any kind of competition culture.

But I’m convinced of this: When we seek — however imperfectly — to ground ourselves in the truth of our own intrinsic worth, and when we seek to view our neighbors in the same ways, we make space for people to do the same. After all, aren’t so many of us longing to hear this? That our lives were never meant solely for productivity or measured by productivity? That there is much more to who we are? And that who we are matters in and of itself?

—Renee Roederer

We have never once —
not even one time! —
charted a path that has been taken previously.
Nope, never.
Not even one time!

In the history of our lives,
In the history of humanity,
In the history of the earth as we know it, and
In the history of our solar system,
We have never repeated the same rotational pathway.
Not even once.

We have never resided in the exact same physical space we inhabited
two minutes ago,
two years ago,
two millennia ago, or
two zillion millennia ago.

Why?
Our universe is expanding.

The earth is not traveling the exact same path,
year by year, around a static sun.
We are charting new pathways on February 15, 2023
which are entirely different
from the pathways of movement and physical space
we forged collectively on February 15, 2022.

BECAUSE
The sun is not standing still.
It has never done so.
It is shooting forward
(as if we could know in the cosmos which way is forward?)
through the Galaxy,
in an ever-expanding universe!

So tell me again. . .

. . .why do we think our lives cannot change and adapt?

. . .why do we think we have to stay in the same rut?

. . .why do we think “But we’ve always done it that way!” is an accurate or appropriate argument?

Perhaps, grounded to this very earth,
with our eyes to the skies, and
with our feet firmly planted,
we might just accept that our personal universe
Can
EXPAND
Too.

–Renee Roederer

❤️ You’re loved as you are. ❤️

You’re
worth it.
fabulous.

Not when you,
Not if you.
You, right now.

Loved presently.
Loved thoroughly,
Loved wholeheartedly.
Worth it.
Fabulous.

-Photos by Renee Roederer

Life is too short not to prioritize joy and delight. And sometimes, thankfully, it just finds us.

From time to time, I like to share this poem from Mary Oliver:

Don’t Hesitate
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

-Mary Oliver, Swan: Poems and Prose Poems

Tweet by Benjamin Perry reads, “What to hear something amazing about crying? Emotional tears have higher protein concentration that irritant tears, which makes them fall down your cheeks more slowly — increasing the chance that they’ll be seen and solicit care. In literal ways, your body is built for community.”

Everything is beautiful and I am so sad.
This is how the heart makes a duet of
wonder and grief. The light spraying
through the lace of the fern is as delicate
as the fibers of memory forming their web
around the knot in my throat. The breeze
makes the birds move from branch to branch
as this ache makes me look for those I’ve lost
in the next room, in the next song, in the laugh
of the next stranger. In the very center, under
it all, what we have that no one can take
away and all that we’ve lost face each other.
It is there that I’m adrift, feeling punctured
by a holiness that exists inside everything.
I am so sad and everything is beautiful.

— Mark Nepo

I was on a Zoom call when quite spontaneously, every single person on the call gave each other a heartfelt complement of what they most notice in each other. It all started with someone expressing a vulnerability, and another person adding encouragement — not only a sense of, “you can do it,” but “you can do it because this is who you are and how we experience you.”

Then somehow, that snowballed in a lovely, spontaneous way. The rest of the call, perhaps the last twenty minutes, became a collective opportunity for all participants to affirm every member. The facilitators couldn’t have planned this if we tried. It just happened, and it felt like joy.

Life is too short, and we’ve gone through too many things over the last few years to let those meaningful affirmations go unnoticed and unvoiced. Let’s share them.

–Renee Roederer

The image above is a tweet from @AlexBanayan, and I really love it. It reads,

“When I interviewed Maya Angelou, she told me to write this sentence on my notepad and to never forget it.
‘Every storm runs out of rain.’
i still think of that line to this day.”

As I reflect on this, I think it can mean a number of things:

— Some storms aren’t worth our energy.
— Sometimes, we’ve fought too long in a direction that’s not worth it. We can just walk away.

But I think my favorite is this:

— Sometimes, with time, the clouds clear. The pain is clearer too, or healed, or healing. And love, or possibility, or expansiveness, or growth is what remains.

What does it mean to you?

Today, I’d like to share this video from Dr. Nicole LePera, who goes by The Holistic Psychologist on social media.

She asks, “Do you have trauma brain?” Here are some signs she mentions:

1) Obsessive desire to be chosen by others without any awareness about how you and your body feel about the connection

2) Chronic social anxiety

3) Need for consistent distraction

4) Ego states of self-judgment and comparison

5) Lack of trust that leads to procrastination, self-sabotage, and shame cycles

If you notice any connections or resonance with these, be kind to yourself, know you’re not alone, and know that you can find help for these.

Captions are available when viewing from YouTube.