Today we reach the end of Present over Perfect and our book club. It would be tempting to say that we have arrived.
And yet, if there is something this book has reinforced for me over and over, it is that life is a journey. We never actually arrive. As we grow and change, and the seasons ebb and flow around us, we have to discard old habits, and put on new. We find that what worked in the past in no longer useful in this new season. We find that a habituated way of reacting in the past is not healthy for us in our now (and may not have been in the past either).
Brené Brown says it this way:
Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.
Daily practice.
Something we have to do every single day.
Remembering to realign ourselves with our core.
Sometimes we will forget and choose hustle over rest. We will choose busy over connection. We will choose organised over fun.
We will allow other people’s opinions to have more weight than they ought. We will forget to give our bodies the hospitality they deserve.
And we will need to offer ourselves grace and space, and remember once more that it is a journey.
As Shauna says in her closing paragraphs of this book:
The bad news is that there is no finish line here, no magical before-or-after. Probably you will not always live in this new, brave, grounded space. Let me be clear with you: I don’t. I still get pushed off center, thrown into fear and proving, wound up into a tangled mess of expectations and opinions of who I should be and what I should do.
But there is good news too: if we just keep coming back to the silence, if we keep grounding ourselves, as often as we need to, in God’s wild love, if we keep showing up and choosing to be present in both the mess and in the delight, we will find our way home, even if the road is winding, and full of fits and starts.
We will find our way home.
We have loved the Present over Perfect journey that we have been on this month. Thank you to everyone who has joined in the discussion with us. And the discussion question across all three blogs is:
What have you learnt from the Present over Perfect journey?
Go check out what Amanda and Elaine have learnt from this book, and thank you for joining us in the Present over Perfect journey.
Jodie
And just a reminder, we will leave all the posts linked here for you to go back to at any time.
I know I commented on Facebook, but wanted to say how much I enjoyed this series and the blogs by both you and Amanda. It’s been a life-changing book for all of us. Daily practice is something we all need to work on. Those daily rhythms that sustain us and keep us going in the direction we need to go. You are doing this beautifully. xxx