PEBBLE
The reality of where you are is always more important than the ideal of where you imagine you should be.
-Jeff Warren, shared via The Daily Trip on Calm
BOULDER
Some moments you savor. Others you endure. And here’s the thing: you are as alive and valid in the second kind of moment as you are in the first. Don’t let anyone tell you different.
-Nanea Hoffman, shared by Debbie in Topeka, KS
PONDER
I have this story in my head about Ideal Me…a highly fabulous (and mostly fictional) version of myself that shows up every single day as genuinely warm, super upbeat and highly effective, even on the really poopy days. While I think there’s a decent amount of evidence that on plenty of days I really do show up with some amount of these attributes, it isn’t true ALL of the time on ALL of the days. And believing that I CAN or SHOULD be able to show up like that every moment of every single day…well, that’s just a delusion.
It is so easy to like myself and my life when things are going smoothly. Unexpected twists and turns tend to knock me off balance, and I’m often surprised at just how grouchy and controlly and judgy I can get towards myself and others when things go awry.
Today’s pebble popped up in a recent “Daily Trip” meditation that Jeff Warren posts each day via the Calm App https://www.calm.com/, and it has me thinking about how often I am so distracted by the Ideal that I miss opportunities to meet myself and my life exactly where we’re at on this journey: being okay with the imperfections and the foibles and the regularness.
Regardless of what is going on in your life right now, whether you’re savoring or enduring or maybe bits of each….I hope you can embrace the reality that is in front of you, and know that your real self is far more precious than your ideal self….because your real self is really, really you.
Peace,
Paul
