Quiet&Calm.

Harper has always been shy. Some people find it off-putting, some people just think she’s rude. Either way, I do my very best not to ask her to be different, and to teach her that strength does not always roar. Sometimes, she struggles with feeling like she’s hidden in the background (a longstanding struggle of my own), and we just reassure ourselves that we can be quiet, and calm, and still fierce. Worthy of note: she doesn’t struggle with being in the background at home, because Sister frequents the Snark Park and airs her sassy laundry here – glad she feels safe, not so glad about the sass sometimes. I digress.

One day, she came home with a piece of artwork that asks, “What is your favorite thing about yourself?” Her answer? I am quiet and calm. Damn, girlfriend. She figured out how to see her misunderstood, perceived flaws as strengths. As her favorite parts of herself. She decided, at some point, that being quiet was beautiful and being calm could be strength. After talking more about it, she shared that her heart “notices things that other people might not” because she is quiet, and calm, and observing. She doesn’t miss a thing.

Lesson 297497 from my children. What would change in your life if you took something viewed as weakness. dug deep into how it’s actually served you, and made it your very favorite strength?

What would it look like to hold something that the world sees as weakness up to your ear, like a seashell, and lean into what it’s telling you about yourself? Are you quiet? Maybe you’re someone that notices things that others don’t because you are quietly and intently watching the world around you. Are you loud? Maybe you are a vocal and passionate pointer outer that calls things to attention that others let fade into the background. Either way, a strength.

Please, dear ones, do not let the world tell you that you are too little or too much to fit into this place. Whether you are a corner piece, an end piece or a middle – you are part of the great puzzle piece that is your life and the lives of those around you. A puzzle that would not be complete if not for you. You are necessary, worthy, loved and significant. The world spends a great deal of unnecessary time telling us what’s valuable. It tells us what to BE less of, or BE more of. What to DO less of, or DO more of. Sometimes, it even decides what characteristics are best to embrace or whispers to us what we should try to get rid of.

Have the audacity to believe that the aspects of yourself outside of that small box are significant gifts. Have the courage to believe that your perceived weaknesses are just that – perceived. Be you, bravely, Love. And the world will learn to fall upon that bravery with admiration. And if it doesn’t? You will still be in on one of the greatest secrets of the universe – that loving yourself is more valuable than the world’s admiration.