WHO is Perfect?

WHO do you give yourself permission to be? Do you have to be perfect or do you feel guilty if you aren't?

WHO do you give the people around you permission to be? Do you allow the people around you to be imperfect or do you demand perfection?

The Five Minute Friday prompt this week is WHO

I want to do this -->

I want to intentionally express to the people around me, starting in my home, they are LOVED and they BELONG.

They don't have to do "it" right. They don't have to "be" anything in particular.And they never have to be perfect to be in relationship with me.

WHO do you value?
How do you communicate that to them?
Do they feel like they belong in your presence?
If they do, how do you know?
If they don't, how do you know?

The book I've listened to twice because it was so incredibly insightful, was Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brene' Brown. Read it. It's fantastic! Encouraging in this day and age where so many are trying to prove they matter.

A SEARCH Resulting In The Unexpected

Free Write for Five Minutes prompt today is SEARCH.

SEARCH

An amazing park right in the middle of where I work.

What do you SEARCH for? My answer: People or things of great value.

When we look we always find something. It may not be what we were looking for. What do you do when your SEARCH comes up with something new instead of what you expected? Are you willing to change direction? Plot a new course? Or do you throw what you found to the side and proceed forward regardless of what it was.

For me, because of who I am, if I am SEARCHing for something and I find something else instead, I wonder why. I stop and consider if this is something worth following or is it something I need to walk past?

I found my job that way. I was SEARCHing for a way to pay my bill but ended up sending in a resume'. Three months later I am trained and working and loving it. Six months ago I would have never considered what I'm doing as an option. But I am super happy with how this SEARCH turned out, even if I wasn't expecting the result I ended up with.

PAUSE: A Key to Depression Prevention

Five Minute Free Write today is PAUSE.

I've written about my ongoing battle with depression several times. One of the ways I've learned to push back from the edge of the Black Hole is to PAUSE.

Do you ever have a moment where you want to freeze time and just hold still, soak it up and breathe deeply? For me - occasionally.

I love ballooning for a bunch of reasons, one of which is the PAUSE
that comes after the burner is used when there is just silence.

Do you ever have to make yourself stop, take in what is going on in your world and receive the gifts you've been given? For me - absolutely!

When I'm skirting the edge of the Black Hole of depression or getting close to falling in, I PAUSE. I look for the great things (my people), the good things (having a solid roof over my head, running water, a car to drive, food to eat) and the "daily" things t
hat have to be done but I don't always appreciate my ability to do them (cooking, cleaning, shuttling my kids around). If I PAUSE and see these things for the gifts they are, I can back away from the Hole for a few minutes, a few days, a few weeks or even, if it's sunny consistently, a few months. But I have to make myself PAUSE regularly to keep from the dark despair that comes with the Hole.

If I am IN the Hole, it's impossible or very close to it to find the good, see the great, or be amused by the "daily" stuff. That's when I go to my doctor. Modern medicine isn't the ultimate solution, but by the time I get to him, I've tried exercise, thinking happy thoughts, journaling, etc.

Like a picture captures a moment, take a moment.Stop and look around you. PAUSE.