Have you ever considered that the best of you has yet to be discovered?

We like to think that we can dress ourselves up with our experiences, education and accolades.

That who we are is the sum of our success and ability to dust ourselves off after a string of errors and mischief.

That we possibly can just forge ahead and put the mess of our past behind us.

No burial service, no atonement, no rectification.

Just walking away from the mess and letting the scabs form where they are as we stagger on.

If this is you dear one, then I must urge you… sit down. You are leaving bodies in your wake, and the next one might be yours.

Here’s the thing,

We humans have so much to learn from the digging into our failures, our past and our wounds.

We will repeat what we don’t heal and we will find a new way to ripple affect the damage we haven’t dealt with.

Success is not how many times you are able to walk away from failure and press on.

Success is found within the healing process. How deep you go to find the cause of the wounds of your past and how you carve out time and space for new and more healing ways to continue on.

We like to act like we are above brokenness. That our ability to damage ourselves and others along the way by our own inability to see the next bump in the road is just a simple accident, but the truth is,

without your own self reflection, healing and ability to see that you are just as faulty as the next broken and lonely soul…

you will always pass judgement and assume to know the depths of another person’s pain.

You will continue to walk away from the messes you make, shrug your shoulders and suggest that there is nothing more you can do.

But there is.

Always.

More healing to be found in the cracks of you.

And maybe,

just maybe,

working on healing your own broken pieces will create the safe place for new healing somewhere else instead of the shards you leave in your wake that people will walk on.

Forever singing over each other.  'We are diamonds, rising up out of the dust'. 

The past month has been full of challenges.  I have been and still am processing the weight that comes with wanting to 'go through it', instead of around it.  How do I journey this healthy?  How do I use these broken pieces of me and others and stitch them into something that could be healing?

Amidst the pain, a new life is born.  Our best friends are now parents and everything that is raw, tender, new and reborn has happened.  They are absolutely beautiful in their newness and the love is expanding.  We get to open our arms to more of them.  More of who they are.  Our little is witnessing what 'new' truly is.  

Amidst the pain another best friend visits.  He brings with him that grace and peace that has been hard to anchor and we are again reminded that healing is not a solo job.  Healing is a collective agreement.  Healing is a raising up of eachother. 

I woke up the next morning after his visit with those song lyrics "You Make Me Brave" in my mind.  

We are called to embolden each other.  We are called to enter into each others pain and questions.  We are called to hash it out in the safety of acceptance of one another.  Without that safety, we cannot heal.  

I had so easily forgotten.

This was my calling too.  

Over any of the doubts I carry personally and professionally. 

That I seek to create a safe place for collective healing.  For myself.  For others.

& it's in that healing that courage and bravery is found. 

Tender moments with Uncle and this new little life.