rewriting our stories

In the sharing of our stories...something profound happens. Magical...shifting...seeing...being seen...a path that has (perhaps) been there all along...reveals itself. Giving birth to my daughter was such an experience for me because, immediately, I knew that I was sharing my stories with her. This broke my heart because...some of my stories...I don't want to share with her. They are too sad, too broken, too much of a burden for her to carry. And so. I had to claim them as mine and then... rewrite them. Let them go. It's difficult to sift through the rubble, you know...and say...Oh! this one is mine + this one is not. It's daunting to break open stories and find other ones living inside of them...those not mine either but still ...there they are! But once we can sift through the real vs the unreal and really start writing our own stories...once we commit to the process...

 we can begin the journey of healing, rebuilding and creating the person we want to be...not living out the old stories of the person someone else wanted us to be. And this takes time (the entire rest of our lives, perhaps) and...courage, grace, community. and most of all (for me)...it takes a willingness. To 

*stumble

*be in pain

*keep on keepin' on

*be clumsy

*be joyFULL

*accept abundance

*see ourselves clearly

*be seen

But in affirming our wounds, feeling our pains and angers...we start the process toward healing + wholeness. And most of all...acceptance of what is. 

" She could never go back and make some of the details pretty. All she could do was move forward and make the whole beautiful."-Terri St. Cloud as quoted by Dr. Brene Brown in The Gifts of Imperfection

And while I know that Tara will write her own stories...that one day, she will claim what she wants to keep + let go of those other ones that don't serve her. Right now...my stories are her stories. And that makes me want to live more bravely, authentically...and to have more heart. It motivates me to look at mySELF with love and kindness and forgiveness. 

 What are your stories?The ones you want to keep + the ones you want to rewrite??