It has been a year of standing witness to my daughter stepping into new experiences for herself and I have been meditating on the words we spoke with one another in both times that have spoken back to me time and again:
“Give yourself the space and the grace to be new.”
When you are entering an environment with others who have been tending to that ground for years, it can be quite intimidating to know how to start planting from fresh ground. Comparison can steal your confidence if you let it, and it takes intentionality to speak grace back to yourself as you struggle to show up. Sometimes, we look at the harvest others are gathering from their season and we discount ourselves before we even give ourselves the opportunity to find our position.
These words are to give you a few invitational affirmations to speak to yourself while you need the reminder that there is still a place for you, even though you are new.
When you see a table full of people connected by a shared experience, there is still enough room for you to pull up a chair and join in the conversation.
I get that it feels hard to know how to say hello to others who have depths in their conversation, but who you are is a refreshing voice with an invitation to be known, simply because YOU ARE YOU.
So, Mama, when you find yourself with your child stepping onto the field with that new team, those new families, or entering the new school navigating everything new, speak this to yourself:
I am worthy of being known and heard and I will have a seat in this place. It is not too full for me to pull up a chair and join in the conversation; it begins with a simple hello.
By letting yourself be seen in your new, you give an authentic place to be truly known.
When you see strengths shining around you, it can be easy at times to dim your own light because of a fear of vulnerability and being judged and criticized for your weaknesses. Yet, when you show up watching others who have been cultivating a skill for longer than you, let yourself be a student standing on the teaching ground. This gives you the space to learn and to grow, reminding yourself that perfection is never the goal and that the process is where you will discover the harvest.
Speak this to yourself when you enter that ground:
I am allowed to ask for help with something I have never done before. I have a safe place to let someone’s strengths be a guiding light on my path and not something to keep my abilities in the dark. I will let myself shine, even in the new start.
There is grace to teach you in the gaps between where you are vs. where you want to be.
There is a beautiful strength in setting goals of where you are heading; yet in that place, remind yourself that in the forward movement, there is room to be present today as well.
It’s a learning curve to know the balance of letting yourself recognize where gaps lie in your story that you want to grow and to develop while also giving voice to them in your mindset that there is room to evolve and to be.
When you find yourself struggling to feel the balance, speak this over yourself:
I can be present today while stepping strides for my tomorrow. I am able to be seen in the details of today while dreaming of what’s to come. It is ok that I have not arrived in all the places I desire, learning from the gap of what is missing today is part of the journey to get me there.
May you find strength in this place to be seen in the new as you discover your addition in this place is a beautiful investment.
