YOU MATTER, JUST BY BEING HERE
Question: “How do you handle failures?” - Anonymous
(This week’s series is about learning to embrace the questions within each of our stories. This series is inspired by actual questions from our community submitted through social media. The daily messages you read here are inspired by real stories and this week, I wanted to incorporate actual questions that get me thinking about the stories within our community, and I hope to write words and make art that reflects real experiences. – Morgan)
What I have learned about failure is that while is inevitable, grace is inevitable too. Sometimes, I learn from my failures, and sometimes I don't. Sometimes, I see how it's made me stronger, and other times, I feel neutral about it. Perhaps what matters is that even when I can't see the silver lining, I do see the horizon that fills the morning sky with sunlight. I hear the chance to start again in the sound of neighbors leaving their homes to start the day.
Perhaps, what matters is that even when fear lingers, we notice how grace lingers, too. Filling up the room with music that reminds us, "even here, there is more to you."
When it comes to failure, two things can be true:
One: you are free to feel whatever you need to feel. Whether it's grief, embarrassment, disappointment, or a mixture of feelings, there is no shame if the feeling does not go away.
Two: at the same time, there is grace: unmerited favor that reminds you are loved and seen even when you're not succeeding or winning.
Continue to do your best while also knowing you are not defined by what you accomplished. You are also not defined by the times you've failed.
Even when you're worried that others might stigmatize your failure, and cause you to feel fear or shame for not winning like you're supposed to, this remains true: you matter, just by being here. And if no one has ever said those words to you, it's still true. If the people you look up to make you feel like you need to succeed more and fail less, it's still true: there is so much more to you than who you are when you are at your best and most accomplished. Of course, this is a part of your story, and it's beautiful and I hope you celebrate every mountain top moment. You are worthy of love and support when you arrive at those peaks. And you are also worthy of love and support when you are in the valley, or somewhere in between.
Failure will come.
Success will come, too.
But it is never just the mountain or the valley that will define you.
May you learn to embrace
the entire landscape of who you are.
Word of the day: Landscape (n): all the visible features of an area of countryside or land (Oxford Languages)
Journal: Give yourself permission to write, sketch, or paint the way you've felt this week. Where have you seen grace?
Affirmation: My mountains and valleys make up a landscape that I can see before me.
More in this week's series called "How Long Will the Waiting Last?", only with a subscription in the Storyteller App.
Sincerely,
Morgan Harper Nichols
@thestorytellerco
@morganharpernichols
