08/01/2025
Somewhere along the way, you stopped checking in on yourself. You became so accustomed to taking care of the things and the people outside of you, you forgot how to care for yourself. It wasn't on purpose, and the goal was not to abandon yourself, but somehow that is what happened. You moved lower down on your list of priorities and higher on your list of judgements. It was easier to take care and tend to the garden that lives on the outside, for everyone else to see, disguised as care. As long as things on the outside were manicured and pruned, trimmed and prepared just so, you were doing alright.
Somewhere along the way, you stopped listening to your own knowing. The quiet wisdom was there, even in the moments of stress and challenge, the answers are there for you to find. Hidden quietly in the relentless nature of your heart to stay open, even when it's scared. To endure the discomfort of vulnerability for the reassurance of life living through you. It became the path of least resistance that lured you in, tricking you that safety was in the arms of the relentless draw of familiarity.
Somewhere along the way, you stopped cheering yourself on. It felt easier to cheer on your loved ones, making them centre stage, than it felt to root for the quiet wins and the small shifts. Instead of acknowledging your efforts and taking inventory of all the stretching, morphing, shifting and growing happening, it was easier to push that to the side. It became easier to downplay, and push aside your wisdom.
Somewhere along the way, you remembered your right to choice, to change your mind, to evolve. You find an opportunity to see yourself from a different vantage point... one that only comes with the experience of life itself. The way certain things shape you, and leave you, often more understanding and tolerant, and less willing to settle. It comes from you not giving up, knowing that even when it's hard, it will be worth it.
Perhaps somewhere along the way, you had to forget the whole point, so you could see the magic again when you find it, by the simple path walking you back to yourself.
Written by,
Jilaine Beddoe
