This morning, I’m writing to you from our family car as my husband drives us across town to pick up the grandkids (thank you personal wifi hot spots!) before we drop him off for a meeting. Next stop will be back to the house to pick up our teenage son, the only one left still living at home, to transport him to a test. Then we’ll go back and pick up my husband after the meeting in what feels like a weekly driving marathon. Sprinkled in between will be short visits to the park, an indoor climbing gym, some yoga tumbling as we wait for the teenager to get ready, and a little lunch.
In the past, we’ve been an intentional one car family and it made sense because we both worked from home, but as life has called us to show up bigger, to be more involved in the lives of our grandkids, to spend more time helping our son with a goal,to show up more boldly in our businesses, we have shifted and adapted our routines. Almost to the point where we’re on the cusp of another change and in need of a second car, daycare, a nanny or some other option we haven’t yet considered.
Great, Christi, but how does this relate to me, or living a more aligned life?
Life can be messy and what formerly was aligned can appear out of alignment as your life shifts and changes. What it looks like to live aligned and true to yourself, taking care of your inner needs at one point can also become a hindrance at another.
I’ve been able to adapt and do a fairly good job of welcoming all of this new goodness into my life while still tending to my soul. But, as I tuned in last night and mapped out our schedule for today, I realized that my soul felt as if it were collapsing as if the life force and energy were seeping out. And today, I’m feeling the cusp of change, that transition between what was and what is to be.
During this time of transition for so many areas in our family’s life, there have been days when I put everyone else first and lived completely counter to my own philosophy of life. It happens time to time and when I catch myself I course correct. Every time it happens, it’s incredibly humbling and I get to feel the pressure and angst of being out of alignment, which only fuels my desire for this work.
I’m not certain what our interim solution will be for gaining more time without being on the road, but writing to you this morning and sharing a recent podcast with you was a priority right up there near the top of my list as part of taking care of my own inner needs this morning. Over the course of the last few months, I’ve wanted to write my thoughts or express them in some way and share, but often that desire would fall to the bottom of the list and be deferred in favor of the urgent situation of the day.
Not today.
I hadn’t written to you before we left, so I sat in the passenger seat of the car and pulled out my laptop and started typing. I put my desire to connect and express and share something that I think will move you at the top of your own priority list up there as most important in this moment. While doing this in the car isn’t ideal, it’s what happened.
Life can be messy. Prioritizing yourself and your inner needs can be messy.
If you’re waiting for the perfect moment, it won’t show up. Perfection isn’t real and you’ll never get there if you wait for it.
So jump in now — even though it might feel rough and messy — and give it a try. You won’t regret it.
And now, I feel a bit car-sick 🙂 and relieved to have this out and on its way to your screen with the potential to inspire you to put your own inner needs first.
I’m off to play with the grandkids as we sing toward our next destination but first, before you do anything else today, make some time to …
LISTEN TO PUTTING YOUR INNER NEEDS FIRST (that podcast interview I mentioned)
Enjoy!
Christi
xoxo
P.S. Listening to Dr. Vivian’s voice is soul nourishing in itself. She’s a gracious and loving host and it was fun to play with her to create this episode.
P.P.S. If you need more encouragement, here’s what Mary Straub had to say about this episode: