no one is tiny

The other day I had an encounter with a younger student in my department. When she realized that the group of people around her were all PhD students, she looked embarrassed and immediately blurted out, “I feel so tiny. I’m just an undergrad.” It was a little moment but it touched me and it’s been lodged in my brain ever since.

I immediately blurted something back that made my friends at the table laugh and start teasing me about sounding like a greeting card.

“No one is tiny,” I said. “We’re all on a journey.”

And okay…yeah…Hallmark should just start paying me now. But I totally meant it. I think back to a year ago, two years, five years, ten years and I wonder what would have happened to me if the people I looked up to then had treated me like I was tiny. What if they hadn’t been so patient with me? What if they hadn’t given me the opportunity to grow and to change in my own way, in my own time? Would I be here? I am just so grateful for all the teachers and mentors and friends who have never made me feel tiny. It’s a good reminder for me. No one is tiny.

We’re all on a journey.

That’ll be 3.95 plus tax but you get the envelope for free.

 

I was going to kill two birds with one stone and tell you where I got my outfit but then I realize it’s all thrifted or vintage. So…that would be unhelpful to you.

And hey, Michelle from Making Sense of Cents won the giveaway from Katie for Thought! Michelle, I will be sending you an email later today. Congratulations! Want to check out more of Katie for Thought’s hand-painted creations? Go check out her Etsy shop here. And for a limited time, she is offering Love is the Adventure readers a 10% discount. Just enter the coupon code ADVENTURE1 at check-out.

Wishing you a good-luck Monday. You are not tiny.

love, elizabeth

The Need for Speed

Been seeing this commercial a lot lately. Clever, clever, phone company.



Anyone notice the almost manic pressure the world feels to speed things up? A 3G network?? Are you living in the DARK AGES??? That page took an entire SECOND to download? Your phone is CRAP. Seriously?



Like Louis C.K. says about the iPhone's internet capabilities, "Give it a second! It's going to SPACE. Can you give it a second?"

In a world where we have essentially all recorded data/information/people/things at our fingertips, we seem to have forgotten the part where it's fun to explore and discover and take the time to enjoy the journey.

I am promising all of you right now that I am going to relish the time. I am going to savor the long line at the grocery store. I am going to take in deep, beautiful lung-fuls of air while Madigan takes forever to find a suitable patch of grass on which to pee. I am going to slow. down. now.

love, elizabeth

Be Kind To Yourself

During a recent counseling session with my therapist, I began listing off all the things I hated about myself, all the ways I was sure I had failed. I wasn’t disciplined enough, I told him. I was unsure of my path. I say the wrong thing. I second-guess every relationship and friendship I have. I am constantly questioning my abilities and my feelings. There’s a drum beat in my head and it’s sounding off the same, familiar rhythm again and again. You are not good enough. You are not good enough.

My counselor smiled at me as I told him all of this and his eyes were sad. “You’re not very kind to yourself, are you?” he asked. That hit me hard.

The whole notion of “taking care of yourself” is deceptively simple. Often, I think, I say that I am. Maybe I even think that I am. I rush through the day, moving too quickly to really consider how things are hitting me, affecting me. But lately, I’ve been making a concerted effort to stop and take a real kind of inventory of my state of being. Am I being kind to myself? Am I okay? And if I’m not, is it okay that I’m not okay? Too often, I find myself stepping quickly over the most painful moments because I feel like I don’t have the time or energy to feel them or let them pass through me.

I guess that’s what this summer is about for me. I want to be kind to myself. I want to learn how to do that. I want to learn to be more patient with my heart and more gentle with my soul. I’ll be making an effort to keep blogging about the self-kindness journey. What about you? What can you do to be more kind to yourself this week?