I have a reminder for you – and me – today:
Your reason for being, your reason for surviving, for fighting, for thriving? It can be you. Just you.
It doesn’t have to be your family, your children, your career, your faith, your cause, your pets, or even your friends.
That’s not to say they can’t be part of it, and important ones at that. But they don’t have to be the only ones, the primary ones, or even there at all.
I know that the world assumes otherwise, especially for women. The pressure is often immense to say that you are willing to carry a gun to protect your children, or that you are trying to be safe so that you are there for your family, or that you live for God, country, and job. Any or all of those may true. But you don’t have to pick among them, or choose one of them over or instead of your individual self.
Maybe you just need to be selfish right now, because all of your energy is taken up with keeping yourself together. Maybe you are at a place in life where you don’t have a partner, don’t have children, your parents and pets have passed, your career is DOA, you feel isolated from any friends you have. Maybe that call to do it for those people and causes external to you isn’t compelling right now for whatever reason. Maybe you care about all of those things, but you want to recognize yourself too, because you’re not sure that anybody else does or because reasons you can’t articulate at all. That’s all okay too.
All or part of your reason in life, for life, can be you.
