“The wind grows cold and with each blow, the leaves fall fast yet somehow still slow. Creating colorful pavements beneath the trees and with a new breeze, they start to flee. Swirling, searching, settling somewhere new but we cannot see this journey, we’re distracted by their hues.”

I jotted this down in my journal just yesterday while watching the leaves dance in the breeze. When I read what I had written I realized how much it reflected my own life. The past few months have been miraculous but even in the midst of the miracles, they’ve also been messy.

How can that be?
How can someone have both delight and distress?

Well, I’ve been in a season of creating new ‘colors’ and while most see the beauty of what’s before them, only a select know the shedding (removing, discarding, replacing) that had to happen in order to create it. Seeing how my description of these leaves paralleled so perfectly with me, it was evident that I needed to be more tactical with my thoughts.

Why?

Almost one year ago, I vowed to voyage down a path of positivity. A path of love and light, a path not of perfection but of peace. And in order to stay on this path, I need to do things differently.

How is this shedding process shifting the way I see things?
How is it affecting my actions?

It’s easy to see the negative and I think it’s because we’re all a little pessimistic; pointing out what’s wrong with this or that, focusing on all the worst case scenarios, immediately finding ourselves disillusioned before even beginning. But on a path of positivity, there’s no room for pessimism. Positivity promotes optimism. Positivity shifts the way we see. So, positivity tells me that shedding trees represents the start of a new season.

Share some ways you stay positive with me!
Then take a look at these other noteworthy November blogs 😉

How many times have I sat down at my laptop to write only to stare at my screen making a mental checklist of all the things that need to get done in and for the house, wondering what activities I could be doing with my BabEs or how I could help my husband?
But none of these things are for me.
Writing – that is for me.
Yet somehow it’s usually put at the bottom of my list (if it even happens at all).

Today a dear friend of mine pointed out that this is something I struggle with. Actually, his exact words were, “You’ve forgotten how to put yourself first, which you should. The better you are, the better your family will be.”
Upon reading that text, my eyes watered.

There’s an immense difference between selfish and self-care.
I have a hard time remembering that.
Today I was reminded.
And tonight I’d like to remind you.
Take the time to do something for yourself this week.

Don’t wash those dishes and dive into that book you bought months ago that is now collecting dust on your nightstand, say yes to that friend who’s been wanting to meet for coffee and chat, try that new yoga class or whatever it is that you haven’t been able to enjoy doing in a while.

Now, this part is important…don’t feel bad about it!

As for me, I have this beautiful new journal just waiting to be written in.

xo,
Kimberly

Today, like most mornings, I sat at my dining table with my cup of coffee and Five-Minute Journal. As I struggled to scribble my thoughts onto the page I could see my oldest son across the table writing away. He too was scribbling his thoughts into his Five-Minute Journal. But he was writing with certainty and confidence. Two things I was clearly lacking today.

Most days there is this false perception of perfection that lingers – daunting me, filling me with doubts. Taking a small, simple task and turning it into something super strenuous.

Elijah had already completed his page and ran off to play with his brother. Still I sat staring at the same page. What should have taken five minutes or less was quickly becoming ten minutes or more.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated. Ahh yes – a distraction from this now tedious task. It was a text from a friend. Eager to evade my current mission I opened it. She sent me a picture. But not just any picture. A picture with words. A picture with these exact words…

“Perfection is annihilation. It paralyzes us from working from the heart. Humans by nature are not perfect and imperfections are what make the world beautiful.”

On this beautiful, brisk Monday morning I’d like to remind someone that perfection is an illusion that seeks to distract us and defeat us. This week when that false perception of perfection starts to linger – remember that imperfection is beautiful.

I thought about killing myself yesterday
I thought about leaving it all behind
I thought about walking away
I thought about how much better the world would be
How much better it would be without me
I thought about grabbing a knife
I thought about slitting my wrist
I thought about pulling the trigger
Maybe then it will be over quick
These thoughts come and they come quick
So fast in fact, I never expect it
It’s debilitating
Sometimes I can’t breath
Sometimes I’m screaming but no sounds come out of me
Where will I go?
What will I do?

“Get a grip! They can’t see this side of you.”

break the S I L E N C E 

You know that thing called family

Yeah that word doesn’t mean much to me

And I’ll tell you why

They love my kids differently

I’m not a lion but hear me roar

Because there’s nothing that frustrates me more

Than seeing favoritism right in my face

To see the ones that I birthed less embraced

To protect them

There’s nothing I wouldn’t do

Even cut off those they have blood ties too

You know that thing called family

Yeah that word doesn’t mean much to me

And if my words offend you

Then you’re guilty

✌

Some of us struggle in silence
Afraid to allow the world to see
All the broken pieces we hide underneath
Underneath our laughter and our smile
While deep down, we’re wailing like a child
Kicking and screaming, making a scene
Yet we don’t say a word because the world is so mean
They call us too sensitive
They say we’re too weak
These are the reasons we choose not to speak
To not say a word, to let it all fester
Instead of fighting we choose to surrender
Some of us struggle in silence
Afraid to allow the world to see
All the broken pieces we hide underneath
We keep them hidden
We keep them out of sight
So don’t always trust us when we say we’re alright

Did you know she smiled through the worst times of her life
Did you know people left her, left her all alone
Did you know that she wasn’t safe, even in her own home
Did you know that she was bullied
Did you know they took her stuff and threw it in the trash
Did you know they spilled cold milk all over her head
Did you know they tried to jump her, seven girls to one
Did you know one girl even filled her hair with gum
Did you know someone pushed her up against the wall
Did you know that same someone spat at her in the hall
Did you know that she reached out, asked someone for help
Did you know that person told her to help herself
Did you know she didn’t want others to hurt so she reached out to them
Did you know that after she comforted you, she went home to be sexually abused
Did you know she tried to kill herself
Did you know she tried three times
Swallowing pins, drinking Clorox, cutting with a knife
Did you know that she struggles, even to this day
Did you know

Have you ever experienced an abrupt change? A sudden shift? I have.
A sudden shift can be scary. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the shift is negative.
Maybe, just maybe, it means that a new adventure awaits.
After all, life is all about adventures, right?

I cannot count the number of times I made a plan and when I say made a plan I mean I had every single detail down. Yet somehow it still seemed to spiral out of control, slipping further away with each second that passed.
It was no longer what I intended.
Instead, there was a scary, sudden shift. An abrupt change.

Maybe life hasn’t been the adventure you anticipated and maybe you’re not where you intended to go BUT maybe, just maybe, you have ended up exactly where you were intended to be.

Maybe, just maybe, that sudden shift didn’t really spiral out of control but rather set in motion something greater.

Maybe, just maybe, that abrupt change was the adventure after all.

That’s how I’ve chosen to see those abrupt changes.

Tap, tap, tap
The sound of my anxiety
My hand against the table
‘Cause life is overwhelming me
Tap, tap, tap
The beat goes on
As agony grows strong
Tap, tap, tap
You wouldn’t even know
‘Cause the second it’s over
I jump back into the show
Tap, tap, tap
Let you see a side of me
I’ve been hiding from society
Tap, tap, tap
But if I don’t speak
Someone will take that leap
That jump, that dive, that only way out
So ima keep speaking
I won’t shut my mouth
Tap, tap, tap
The episode is almost over
Hope my honesty has brought some closure

I woke up this morning with a heavy heart. So heavy in fact it was hard to get out of bed. I just wanted to curl up under the covers, close my eyes and lay there until all the heaviness went away. But that’s not how things work, is it?
Action is the process of doing something – typically to achieve an aim.
Laying there? Not really much movement. Not really an action.
Getting up?
Making my bed?
Praying and meditating?
Sipping on some Café Bustelo?
Snuggling with my sleeping sons?
That’s a start.
I just can’t stop.
Not for the sake of being busy but to see that there is so much happiness in the small things that there shouldn’t be any room for heaviness in my heart before the day even starts. I believe joy comes in the morning and because I believe, the enemy loves to dangle depression over me. Is he trying to force me to question my faith? Of course. But I will not falter. I will not allow myself to drown in depression ever again.
So, I keep moving.
I keep looking for the light.
And if I don’t find it, I create it.
I act on it.

Why?
I came to the realization that it’s all about action. But even better than that, I made the conscious decision to L I V E that realization. To live each and every day with intention, to live each and every day searching for the things I have to be thankful for and if I’m honest, it’s really not that hard. No, not every day is perfect. But every day I am making progress. I am constantly choosing action. And because of that, I am growing; spiritually, mentally, emotionally.

Each and every day I consciously choose J O Y

What are you choosing?