Just Be.
This evening I realized I can see the mountain ridge from my front window.
This might seem small, but tonight I realized I can see a beautiful, natural creation right from my window.
So what, right?
This beautiful, sunset-draped view brought a question to my mind- why have I not noticed this before? Why is this the first time I’m soaking in this view?
The truth? Since moving in a few months ago, I haven’t taken a moment to kick up my feet, plop on my couch, and notice the intricate blessings peppered about this rental home.
The creaky wood floors that make this rental house feel like a cozy home, the backyard tree rustling in the late summer breeze, and this view from my very own front window.
So why have I not seen them? For me, it takes rest to see these things.
Rest is beautiful. It can look like sleep, meditation, nature walks, reading, lying on a blanket…
Whatever it looks like for you — try it out, try it often, and just be.
Loving well requires resting well. When I am mentally and emotionally exhausted, nothing good comes out of me. I react in ways I normally wouldn’t; I allow thoughts to linger in my mind longer than they should...but I must rest to reset.
I was presented with this question during a exhaustive season of “doing.” My counselor asked me: “Paige, I hear a lot of you doing things. How do you enjoy being?”
I bluntly explained I had zero clue how to answer her question, so she gave me some context. She told me that in her life she enjoys being with soft things on her skin, stretching, and laying outside on a blanket.
In a setting where I get to blab my head off, my mouth didn’t move.
My next thought went like this…
So…being isn’t bad?
It took me a few sessions to start grasping the concept that being was not bad, but it was actually a good thing.
I can hear that and say that and write that, but I still wrestle with it to this day…
I constantly feel like I’m not doing enough.
But through many counseling sessions, what I’ve discovered is that at the root of all my doing was not that I’m not doing enough, it’s that I believe I’m not enough without my doing.
This was a profound shift in my life. None of the ways my counselor enjoyed being were bad; they sounded pretty incredible actually. But somewhere along my path, I started to believe that if I didn’t do anything, I wasn’t worth anything.
These lies can seep in so easily and infest your lens with how you see the world and see others.
Don’t let it.
Being says you are enough. The world will continue turning without you overcompensating.
Just rest.
Just be.
This brings me back to my couch, staring at the ridge at sunset. Tonight my mind had time and space to surrender and fall to the feet of gratitude.
I received this overwhelming sense of smallness in the grand scope of the universe, and how thankful I am to just have a part.
I try to ask myself this question more often, “Paige, how can you enjoy being today?” I don’t always remember, and I definitely don’t always get still enough to even allow for that thought to come through my mind…but on evenings like tonight, when it does, I want to share a story that has transformed my life.
I encourage you to be. Find the things that give you the headspace to see the world with an open mind, feel your senses, and experience gratitude.
These are the moments where life just seems to make a bit more sense.
