Kudos, Aly. I read this twice before commenting as it deeply spoke to me. The message is so profoundly important to us all. How I wish I had stopped at so many junctures to not define myself by my grade in a course or work performance review or how many accolades some assignment I worked on received. As you effortlessly yet brilliantly say, we are *not* our work or our daily successes and failures. It’s a very hard pattern to break but I think we need to remember that while work is important and can be rewarding, life at its core is about people, about lives we positively affect and those that affect us, about the saying that if we make one person’s life better, we’ve led a successful life. It’s about finding time to do something for ourselves without guilt tripping ourselves for feeling joy. You would impart to your students a powerful life lesson by sharing your insights with them as they’re entering the rat race. As Anna Quindlen wrote, “If you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.” I’m glad you were “tired but full” after your weekend. The necessity of juman interaction cannot be denied:
Beautiful, Allie. One thing that recovery has given me is permission to be regular, to be enough, to not have to be worse than or better than. Thank you for the reminder to build moments of grace in to my life. Then again, I am deliciously retired, so it ain’t too hard. Your writing is so relatable. Thank you.
Love this Aly 🙂 Great reminder to take a pause. When life feels too busy I try to take each little delay (which I would normally find annoying) as a moment to take a deep breath and remind myself to be where my feet are. Website slow to load? Breathe. Train stopped? Breathe. Slow walking trio taking up the whole side walk? Clench fists, swear inside then breathe (I’m not a perfect person). Keep sharing your stories - always love what you have to say.
Kudos, Aly. I read this twice before commenting as it deeply spoke to me. The message is so profoundly important to us all. How I wish I had stopped at so many junctures to not define myself by my grade in a course or work performance review or how many accolades some assignment I worked on received. As you effortlessly yet brilliantly say, we are *not* our work or our daily successes and failures. It’s a very hard pattern to break but I think we need to remember that while work is important and can be rewarding, life at its core is about people, about lives we positively affect and those that affect us, about the saying that if we make one person’s life better, we’ve led a successful life. It’s about finding time to do something for ourselves without guilt tripping ourselves for feeling joy. You would impart to your students a powerful life lesson by sharing your insights with them as they’re entering the rat race. As Anna Quindlen wrote, “If you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.” I’m glad you were “tired but full” after your weekend. The necessity of juman interaction cannot be denied:
Beautiful lessons. Thank you!! ❤️
Beautiful, Allie. One thing that recovery has given me is permission to be regular, to be enough, to not have to be worse than or better than. Thank you for the reminder to build moments of grace in to my life. Then again, I am deliciously retired, so it ain’t too hard. Your writing is so relatable. Thank you.
Love this Aly 🙂 Great reminder to take a pause. When life feels too busy I try to take each little delay (which I would normally find annoying) as a moment to take a deep breath and remind myself to be where my feet are. Website slow to load? Breathe. Train stopped? Breathe. Slow walking trio taking up the whole side walk? Clench fists, swear inside then breathe (I’m not a perfect person). Keep sharing your stories - always love what you have to say.