Hold your JOY

A couple of months ago, I had a visitor to my home and they flippantly remarked that it must be nice to just MAKE things all day. The remark was intended to imply how perfectly FREE of struggles my life was and how many theirs carried.

I was being taken down a peg.

My thoughts instantly flew to justify just how HARD it all really was. All the bumps I do not openly share. The fears, the setbacks. But that was my MONKEY BRAIN.

I promptly responded with ‘YES, it is’.

That’s it. No justifying.😊

Not long ago, I made a PROMISE to myself. I will not meet people with my struggles or REFLECT it back. I will not justify, cajole, or insist upon my deserving through them. Our culture upholds the STRUGGLE with such a mighty vigilance. Not one person warrants peace, good fortune, or success without it.

We put it on a PEDESTAL and build shrines around it. The toil is often the first thing that spills from our mouths, whether it be a conversation or a business introduction.

Just LOOK at how valid we really are! How hard won the good is - the PRICE paid! It is like we are trying to convince everyone we are, in fact, HUMAN. We beg them not to strip us of our deserving and deem us unworthy, so we invite them to a common ground - our suffering.

Of course, we are deserving - no one needs to be CONVINCED.

We just ARE, always have been. Of every last good thing. Life is not a balance scale - forever assessing the weights, ready to confiscate the wins if the struggles are not adequate.

Or vice versa.

JOY is infinitely human, too.

PROTECT it fiercely.

xo, Kyla