Maybe life isn’t about avoiding the bruises.
Maybe it’s about collecting the scars to prove we showed up for it.
Hannah Brencher
There are many arenas in life that we show up for consistently. Where we don’t have a choice.
Parenthood makes you show up. Even when you’re running on two hours sleep and your child has vomited ten times and you’ve just finished cleaning up when they vomit for the eleventh time–you show up.
When you’re required to be at work at 8 am after said child has been vomiting all night, you turn up.
When you haven’t finished your work at 4 pm and you have to bring it home, you show up at your laptop and finish the work.
When your friend is sick and they need a meal, you show up.
When someone passes away, you show up at the funeral to support the family.
There are lots of opportunities for us to show up in life for others, but what about showing up for ourselves?
Often, we put off things in our own lives and put our hopes, dreams, and purposes aside in order to show up for the urgent. Too many times, years pass and we wonder when or if we will ever do those things.
There are times when we HAVE to sacrifice and put things aside but what if you sense that you have a particular mission in life?
What if you feel God, or the Universe, or however you express a higher power is calling you to something?
Our legacies are wrapped up in our families, our work, our communities, and also in the areas we are called to with that Small Voice inside that says, this is what you’re meant to do.
It took me until my late thirties before I listened to the voice that had been speaking to me about writing. I thought my purpose was teaching, and it was, and it is, but it all flows out of writing.
For years, I taught others to write as an English teacher. Now, I write books and teach others how to write their own books.
When I sat and wrote a letter of resignation from the teaching job I loved, it was time to show up and write what had been laid on my heart.
After fifteen years, eight books, hundreds of blog posts and articles, and many workshops, I’m still showing up at my desk to write.
I’m at an age where I could easily give up and relax. But I still show up. There’s still more I feel I need to do. There’s still a higher purpose. It’s not all about me. It’s about the readers, it’s about the writers I’d like to help, it’s about living life to the fullest in the time I have.
Everything has a cost. Every time you show up for one thing, you can’t show up for another. It’s about prioritising what is important in your life and showing up for those things.
We only have one life. There are no do-overs.
We are all works in progress. We aren’t perfect, we’re all living a first draft life. We’ve just got to keep writing and, one day, the whole story will emerge. One day, our story promise will be fulfilled.
(Quote from Live Your Story Promise by Elaine Fraser)
We may finish our life worn out, bruised, bearing scars, but we can say that we showed up. We showed up for life.