Contentment: A Love Letter
11.17.23 | 29205
For reflection:
Can you create contentment?
Who in your life is most content? Why? Do you look up to them?
Who in your life struggles to be content? Why? Do you relate to them?
How do other people (or other beings in general) contribute to your contentment? How do your relationships influence the rest of your perspective on your life?
To the ones who provide a foundation:
Home is where you are. It sounds cheesy, but every day, I thank my lucky stars that you’re here. That together we create a foundation to build our lives on.
Thank you for being a rock to lean on. For accepting me in all my imperfections and building me up, over and over.
Thank you for diving into the deep end with me. In the uncertainty, you reach for my hand, and we jump together. With you, that jump is a wild ride worth taking.
Thank you for reassuring. For holding. For being here, with me - in both the simplicity and complexity.
To the ones who check in:
You are the determined ones. The ones who choose to create routines and rhythms of a social life, even when the distance is far.
From you I have learned that creating a list of friends with whom I need to reconnect is not, actually, monotonous. Is not, actually, a task - but rather, an emblem of the commitment we share. To be in relationship with one another. To be present for one another. Even when the distance is far.
Thank you for calling. For rescheduling. For blocking the time on my and your calendars, and for sending the one-off text messages that make my day. Even when the distance is far.
Thank you for convincing me that you are, somehow, right here next to me. Even when the distance is far.
To the ones who inspire:
You are the ones I look up to. Not for your accomplishments or possessions, but for the way you move through the world.
You glow like the sun as you move through the day, even when the world around us feels difficult to accept. You are not always happy - you are not always content. But you always, always, find a way to shine brightly for others. You are present to them in their struggle. You are present to me in mine.
Thank you for convincing me that there is solidarity and community to be found, even in the darkest of moments.
Thank you for inspiring me — not to be the ‘best version of myself,’ but to be the version of myself that can savor the small things. Thank you for showing me how to find contentment, and rejuvenation, even when I am not sure where to go from here.
To the ones who build us up:
You inspire me. You reassure me. You hold me. But most importantly, you accept me.
You encourage me to be myself. You don’t expect me to share the same goals and dreams, or to follow the path someone else in my situation might take. Instead, you encourage me to follow my own path. You see the beauty in our difference, and you let it guide us toward freedom.
Thank you for helping me find the in-between of contentment itself – the both/and of appreciating and being present in the current moment, without worrying about the future, even as we dream of change.
Thank you for being more faith-filled than fearful, and for encouraging me to do the same.
Until next time, friends.