You’re Already Doing It

I had a conversation with my seven-year-old self the other day (ya’ll know I’m woo like that). She was chilling out with her Princess Leia braids (Bespin edition/The Empire Strikes Back), and her cute little glasses, all smiles and joy as she told me a major truth. “You’re already doing it!”

That felt both incredible and a little WTF for me as my “doing” and “to-do” lists seemed to be on loop at the time. Wash, rinse, repeat…

And sure, there’s some of that with our craft isn’t there? Write, edit, publish, repeat. Learn, practice, perform, repeat. Create, revise, repeat. And even in parenting – every weekday morning, I’m picking up the same kids, and driving the same routes to the same locations. I’m making sure schedules are organized, and laundry is clean, and plants are watered. I’m doing this messy life thing – with its creation and destruction, explorations and questions, sleep and wake cycles and unending energy exchanges – again, and again.

‘I’m already doing it.’ Yup, sure.

Seven-year-old Sarah went on to point out that “it” was the life she’d dreamed up for herself. The meaningful relationships, the storytelling, the helping others, the singing, the writing, the speaking, the teaching, the playing, the traveling, even the garden. She’d dreamed it up and according to her, in many ways I’m already living our dream. That kind of floored me for a few reasons. One, because she’s right. And two, because I’d been so busy doing all the things, I hadn’t even stopped to truly celebrate that I’m actually DOING all the things.

Sometimes we forget what our dreams were or have been, because we’re so focused on what we still want to create. In a sense, we end up forecasting our lives away – always looking ahead to the next thing and the next. Today I want to encourage you to take a break from the calendar and the “to-dos.” Step back, take a deep breath, and truly look at how far you’ve come. How many areas of your life are you living right now that were once dreams or plans from your past?

Maybe it’s a relationship, or something to do with your day-to-day work, maybe it has to do with where you’re living, or creative endeavors, or how you spend your energy. Whatever it is, let’s take some time to celebrate all the things, no matter how seemingly insignificant they might appear to us in comparison to the mountain(s) of our dreams’ next iterations. Mountains, just like trees, are directly dependent upon their base (which is often 2-3x larger than what we can actually see) to rise. As above, so below and all that. So, those little things? Those daily wins? The showing up? The digging in? The wash, rinse, repeat cycles of our creativity and lives? We’re building bedrock baby (or roots depending on the metaphor).

So, let’s take a moment, and celebrate the hell out of ourselves. For real! Do something that brings you joy, that lights you up. Something that’s neither looking ahead, or belittling where you’ve come from – be in the NOW, celebrate what IS, and all that it took to get here. Whatever the version, acknowledge the dreams you are already living.