IT MATTERS THAT YOU’RE HERE
As you travel the day, as you travel through every moment, whether it is difficult, easy, or neutral, notice how your body adapts. Notice how breath still leaves your body. Notice when and where you loosen your shoulders and stretch your arms, if you are able to do so. This too is strength. Even the moments your mind drifts to a positive thought. Even the short instances where you crack a smile. This is joy.
Even if you’re still overwhelmed by the unknowns that fill the night sky, the heartbreak in the story that makes you ask “why,” I promise you: it matters that you are still alive. It matters that you’re here. And any moment that you notice joy, find hope, or simply just take a deep breath is a sign that you are moving beyond your fear.
And don’t be discouraged if your movement out of fear into something else is slow growth. Working through our fears is individual but it’s also collective. The world feels anxious, especially now. Many fear the future. Many fear what they may lose or never get back. Cultivating courage to restore hope will happen when we work together. The rain needs to fall all through the desert. Not just a select, few high places.
If you feel anxious, afraid, worried—you’re not alone. You’ve never been the only one at the gas station or at the traffic light or in the living room who has felt some semblance of what you’re feeling, even though that’s not how it seems at times.
The fear is real, but so is grace, grace that reminds you that what you have come to know personally, is also a part of the greater picture. The reason why grace (unmerited favor) matters is because so many of the systems we are a part of were not built with grace in mind. Historically, they were built for power. History bleeds with this truth.
Grace makes room for restoration, but this is long, hard work. If you choose to be one who not only extends it, but exhales it, you are choosing to sign up for embracing the unknown. You are choosing to be undone every day, like a flower facing the sun, her petals folded open to the wind that blows it from east to west, and also, open to the Light.
So when you don’t know where to start. When you don’t know where your fears end and where hope begins, remember that grace starts on the ground. Like wildflowers that grow no higher than the height of your ankle, grace is alive right here, where you are, even if it takes time to notice. Even if the wind blows a little stronger today. Even the summer temperatures withers the flower’s anther, grace is still endless and boundless. Whenever one of us are alone.
(This post here is an excerpt from the Storyteller App series called "Your Heart Is Still Beating For More", available to download for iOS and Android! Free Daily Encouragement Notifications (no subscription required) plus premium features: Longer reads, device wallpapers, journal prompts, affirmations and more included. Free trial - no credit card required.)
Word of the day: Collective (done or shared by all members of a group of people) Oxford
Affirmation: “In the well of my soul, I know that my presence matters.”
Journal Prompt: Who in your life has made you feel less alone lately? Who have you made feel less alone lately?
Sincerely,
Morgan
@thestorytellerco
@morganharpernichols
