Life Still Demands to Be Lived

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to lead during a strange and disruptive season.

Not a clean beginning.
Not a fresh slate.

A season where the noise has been loud, the losses have been real, and the urgency has not let up.

I learned even more about working inside myself, which means I learned more about helping others.

I have always been a disruptor.

When everyone is doing something one way, I look for another.

This season, I put that otherness to use.

I did not realize that was what I was doing.
It is simply how I am woven.

There were moments I wanted to join in.
To complain.
To point fingers.
To shrink my life down to something quieter and easier.

But no.

I am here to live.
And you are too.

Let everything we have witnessed over the last few years remind you of this.

These days are gifts.
They are not guaranteed.

So if you have slowed down this season, be present in the slow.

Do not disappear into it.
Do not numb inside it.

Let the quiet sink into your body.
Let it take up space in your core.

Quiet allows you to hear things you cannot hear when you are busy avoiding yourself.

Be open to that.

But do not slow down because you are afraid to accept what is.
Do not slow down because change feels inconvenient.
Do not slow down because you are waiting for permission.

If you are keeping your head down and doing your work right now, then do it with purpose.

Honor the mental labor.
Honor the physical labor.

Let your thinking be intentional, not default.
Let your body move in ways that strengthen you.

Rejoice in the work.

But do not keep your head down to avoid the obvious.
Do not serve what no longer serves you.
Do not confuse endurance with leadership.

And hear this clearly.

If you remain lonely.
If you stay in broken relationships.
If you keep putting yourself last.

If you cope with distraction, overconsumption, gossip, or numbing.
If you neglect your body.
If you stay in work that drains you and underpays you.

You do not just harm yourself.

You create a burden others will eventually have to carry.

Life demands participation.

If you do not live it yourself, the cost will surface later.
Emotionally.
Physically.
Financially.

This is not shame.
It is reality.

Lack of action leads to lack of everything.

This season is still yours.

It is not about the past.
It is not about the world.
It is not about circumstances.

It is about how you choose to show up now.

I am choosing personal leadership.
I am choosing self worth over fear.
I am choosing to live awake.

That does not mean I will not fail, grieve, or get it wrong.

It means those moments will not own me.

I will choose purpose, joy, and aliveness as often as I can.

I hope you do too.

If you enjoyed this post, join my inner circle of people on a mission to design a life they don’t need to escape from!