Our lives were entrusted to us.

In June 2014, I wrote a post about finding your calling in your 20s. A reader thoughtfully commented and said this:

This might sound depressing, but...I was obsessed with finding my dream job and passion in my mid-20s. Then someone once told me to forget about finding passion in my work. Do a job that allows me to do the things I'm passionate about OUTSIDE of work. Curiously enough, embracing this idea made me truly enjoy the job I was already in more. A job is just a job...it shouldn't define your life!

I have thought about her comment at least 50 times since I read it. Do I agree with this?  I wondered countless times as I deliberated quitting my own job. It has taken me approximately 1,100 days to determine my response to her thoughts. Apparently, I didn't take her words lightly! :) 

My answer is this: I respectfully disagree.

You see, I’ve been sitting with the idea, lately, that our lives were entrusted to us. God gave YOU your specific skills, talents and personality. He chose you to embody these things and wants you to use them. It wasn’t a mistake that He made you an amazing listener. It wasn’t an accident that He gave you an artistic eye. He had a plan for what you’d do with your skills while on Earth. Just take a moment to rest in that idea. It is so refreshing to me! 

If you are sitting in a cubicle today, feeling like your soul is rotting and your talents are shriveling up, you aren't crazy. It gave me a ton of peace when I stopped trying to fight my natural inclinations and, instead, trust that they were God-given.

Wrestle with the idea: is this the life that was designed for you? Are you using your amazing skills? Do you feel alive? Do you even feel awake?

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I spent a lot of years in these two camps:

Camp one: What the heck is my calling? What am I good at? What would I actually enjoy doing?

And then, once I answered those questions, which took a very, very long time:

Camp two:  OK, now what the heck do I do with this?

I often wonder if it’s worse to have no idea what your calling is, or worse to know what it is, but feel stuck in your job. I’ve definitely experienced both! I know (trust me, I know), how frustrating it can be to feel this way. It can make you feel panicked, claustrophobic, moody, exhausted, annoyed…

By 10 a.m.

I just want to encourage you, today, to keep asking yourself the hard questions. Keep taking one step at a time to get to where you want to be. You may feel like you’re a million miles away from where you want to go. But, with each step you take toward your goal, you’re a little bit closer to it. Walk through those open doors, my friends.

May Recap + June Goals

Hiya, June Bugs!

May was a funny month because it felt long, but I feel shocked every time I look at the calendar and see it is June. I feel like it should be March! I guess that’s what happens when you leave for a month – it takes your brain a while to catch back up with time.

We spent two weeks out of our house in May because a floorboard rotted in our bathroom. PTL we are renters! I don’t do well when I’m displaced and I struggled with feeling settled while we were out. But it sure made us super appreciate our little house when we were able to move back in! 

Other highlights from the month include a trip to Raleigh for a Write Night with the tiniest baby girl writer you ever did see!

We also went to an awesome wedding in Greensboro, North Carolina.

We celebrated our one-year anniversary, holy moly! I cannot believe it has been 365 days. To celebrate, we had a picnic at our venue, Callanwolde, on our Anniversary Eve and watched the toasts from our rehearsal dinner.

The next day, we went to a hot yoga class, made egg sandwiches, drank Brash coffee (the best!) and spent the day by the pool. We went to dinner at an old favorite – Leon’s – and watched a movie. It was a perfect day!  (:

Chris bought me a fiddle fig tree for an anniversary gift and I love him (talking about both Chris and the tree, here). We named him Fiddle Fig Newton (Newt for short) and are determined to give him a good life. I’m hoping he’ll be a member of our family for years to come! Any tips for figs are gladly welcomed!

As for work, I outlined my book (finally writing it!) and am really excited to see where it goes. We also sent our first letter bundle to Korea (!) and were on The Bert Show. It was so exciting!

We did not win the KIND Campaign, but it’s OK. I feel proud of our results and am learning to celebrate the wins and let go of the losses more quickly.

As for June, here’s what’s on tap this month:

1. Catch up on all letter requests that were submitted before May 15.
2. Write my book proposal.
3. Complete my Plywood People Path course. I highly recommend this course to anyone out there with an idea, vision, dream, small business. It has been amazing! I am learning so much. 

That’s it! I am keeping it light because numbers one and two are big undertakings!

Happy June!

Are you celebrating yourself enough?

I love celebrating milestones - any and all of them! Weddings, birthdays, half birthdays and anniversaries, which are, if you think about it, really just the birthday of a thing. Our marriage just had its first birthday! We are one (:

I’ve learned, though, that I am not always great at celebrating the smaller things – the weekly or daily wins. I tend to grind on something and then, when I reach my goal, quickly move on to the next one.

What starting a nonprofit has taught me, though, is that you have to take time to celebrate along the way, because you can go for a long time without a win. You can get rejected, fail after taking a big risk and feel like you are getting nowhere for days.

I’m learning that when you have a victory - big or small - you have to take a second to celebrate it. You have to be vulnerable to the honesty of the moment and let the joy wash over you.

During the last six months, I’ve practiced reframing failure. For example, if you reach out to someone for help and they say no, it could be perceived as a failure. But! You could also reframe it as: Wow! I used to be afraid to ask for help for fear of rejection. Today, I was brave enough to ask for help and I didn’t spiral into shame when I was rejected. It’s a win, if you think about it that way.

I was babysitting recently and the little girl fell and skinned her knees. As we bandaged her bloody wounds, she asked me through sniffles: What’s the bright side here, Miss Whitney? I wasn’t sure what she meant and asked her to clarify. My mom says you can always find a bright side to anything. Can you help me find it here? After some discussion, we realized the bright side was that she was having so much fun playing that she ended up with skinned knees.

Reframing failure with a five year old! It’s all about that bright side.

I’m starting to understand that we are more resilient when we practice finding good (even just a tiny bit of it) in our failures and take the time celebrate whatever we can.  

When things aren’t going well – when it feels like we can’t win for losing – if we have an entire well of bright sides from which we can pull, we will naturally be more buoyant to life’s trials. As women, I think we often downplay our successes for fear of bragging. But, I promise you, the people that love you want to hear about your wins. They want to celebrate you and all of your goodness!

With that in mind, today I am celebrating wins around here!

I would love, love, love it if you, dear reader, would leave a comment telling me one thing worth celebrating in your life today. Take 30 seconds to celebrate yourself and bring a little bit of light into this world.

I promise, it's not bragging. You are worth celebrating! 

Today, here’s what I’m celebrating:

• We didn’t win the KIND Campaign. But! We were selected as a KIND Cause in the first place! Also, more than 500 of you took time to vote! That is amazing.
• Callie Dauler shared The Letter Project on her Insta story and we received more than 80 new Letter Writers because of it. Holy cow!
• Cassie Young, of The Bert Show, wrote for The Letter Project and read it on the radio. We were on the radio in Atlanta, Nashville and Indianapolis. Ah! 
• My coffee was amazing this morning. Which is basically my love language, so, basically, I feel really loved today. :) 

OK, tell me. What are you celebrating today?

Did you have an awesome dinner last night?

Did you spill your coffee on your shirt but it didn’t even matter because you were prepared enough to keep another one in the backseat?

Did you get into grad school?

Did you finally walk away from the relationship that wasn’t healthy?

Are you accepting your body a little more today than you were yesterday?

Hit me.

Good Wednesday Links

Hi, friends! I took a last minute trip to Denver to see my sister this week, so I don't have posts lined up. But! I wanted to share some mid-week goodness.

First up? This amazing gluten free strawberry scone recipe I discovered via Purely Elizabeth's Instagram (side note: I have a girl crush on her).  YUM. 

I also have a new obsession with rugs ever since I (basically) stole this one from Target. I loved this list of chic rugs for under $100 via Designing Vibes. 

This Moroccanoil Dry Shampoo is my new summer love. Confession: I don't own it. But, a friend let me use hers a few times and now I just want to smell it all the time. 

This verse is everything right now. Loving it, remembering it, leaning on it. 

Want a little warmth in your heart? Loving this read: 17 Quotes From Mister Rogers The World Really Needs Right Now.

Have the best week!