I am learning to love the sound of my feet walking away from things not meant for me.
Daniel Doby

It has always fascinated me the way that Facebook can be a place of pure foolery one minute and deep revelation the next. If your timelines are anything like mine, it can be hard to distinguish between the two after a few minutes of mindless scrolling. Perhaps that was the reason I missed this gem the first go ’round, but once I found it again, it dug into my soul and stayed there as my mantra for 2019. I mean, come on! Can you see how much grace is infused into that one sentence? Honestly, it gives me chills! When I look at this sentence, I see it in parts. Each part speaks to a different leg of the journey that we must all take to provide ourselves with the love and the grace that we all deserve. I hope that by the end of this post, you can see how meaningful this sentence can be in your own life as you make your way toward your goals. Let’s get into it.

I am learning to love…

Every time we learn something new, we expand and open up new doors in our environments and create opportunities for new things to exist. Learning new things signifies growth. It marks a willingness to acknowledge that there was a time in life when love wasn’t a familiar feeling for you. That’s a major step for many of us; one that comes with its own story that more than likely brings up things we’d rather forget. But by learning to love, we are also forgiving the parts of ourselves that weren’t able to see how special we were at the time. It’s like the saying goes: you don’t know what you don’t know. Learning to love implies that you’re open to the responsibility that comes once knowledge is attained. Whew…that’s a lot. But it’s not all. Let’s keep digging.

…the sound of my feet…

That right there? That’s ownership. Ownership goes with growth; you can’t have one without the other. Holding yourself accountable for the part you play in your hardship is a lot. It requires a real and transparent moment in which you rip off the figurative bandaid and allow the blood to flow. That’s a tall order, considering that our human instinct is to avoid pain. And with good reason! Avoiding pain keeps us safe; it keeps us…comfortable. But, we have to remember that at some point the pain stops. And it is when the pain stops that you find yourself on the other side of a transformation.

…walking away from things not meant for me.

If you’ve ever had any question of whether or not you’re growing, this one right here is a pretty good indicator. Why? I’m glad you asked! It’s simple really: if you haven’t been growing there is no way that you can walk away from something that looks good, even when you can feel the consequences of keeping it close. Remember when we touched on those real and transparent moments? This is one of them. I’ll bet that right now, any one of us reading has at least one thing that came to mind when thinking of “feeling the consequences”. If we sit with it for a moment and are really open and honest, we can probably think of more than one…

But let’s stay focused. This post isn’t about the things that you’re not willing to let go of…yet. Not in that sense, anyway. You see, what we’re highlighting today is the success of the walking away you’ve already done. Maybe you’re thinking that it’s not a big deal. Maybe you’ve only let go of one of the things that have been holding you back, and you’ve got six more in the closet. And to that, I say that it’s okay! Isn’t that the goal of all of us here? To learn to live a more graceful life? Well, it starts here with the one.

Instead of focusing on the hundreds of flaws and shortcomings that twinkle like fireflies, I’m urging you today to look for the gaps between the lights. Draw your eyes to the places where the spotlight of negativity doesn’t shine. Many times, our eyes dance over these small pockets, just like mine glanced over this sentence the first time. What we miss in those pockets is the peace and serenity that is already present in our lives if we just allowed ourselves to look. So today, the only assignment is to look. Yes, that’s it. Just look. You might be amazed by what you find…or what you don’t.

-RAE.