Life! There really is no manual for it. As I have grown up, I’ve realized that everyone is really just winging it and trying to figure it out.
We may have people we think of as role models. We may have people who inspire us to reach our goals. We may have family members who have been amazing to us our entire lives. But at the end of the day, they are human too. This does not take away from the inspiration they give us. To me it actually adds to it. When people are able to grow and do great things along with being the complex humans that we all are, I think it gives other people the freedom to realize perfection is not the goal and to appreciate their own flaws.
As I have talked to many of my friends and peers, most people can recall the first time they realized their parents were not perfect. This is usually a life reckoning moment for people. To some, it seems like their whole life is a lie. For many people, it takes some deep contemplation to reconcile who their parents really are and who they thought their parents were. I think this happens when we find out details about our role models’ lives too! It’s some sort of shock and disbelief. I get it though. We live in a society that does not talk about the concept of duality much. We try to remove the complexities of life and boil messy things down to simple definitions. It’s really harmful to be honest.
For me though, I realized my parents were human earlier than I think most people do. It’s not because they weren’t good people, that’s far from the truth. They were, and are still, AMAZING parents and people. God really blessed me in this category. I learned my parents were human because they did not hide their humanity. They talked with me about life experiences. They apologized when they made mistakes. I’ve seen them overcome personal struggles. They allowed me to see them as a whole person. Every person is more than the highlights we are shown. We have to remember that life is full of ups and downs and this is the same for everyone!
Realizing that everyone is on their own journey and just trying to figure it out brought me peace and freedom. It gave me permission to live my life and not be worried about messing up. It gave me empathy for other people. It taught me that everyone has a story. Everyone has their own struggles. No one knows the ALL the answers. Sometimes living through “it” is the only thing you can do. It helps me to live in the reality of the “both, and” for myself. It has also helped to allow me to release people to be who they are and accept it. It has helped me to not be shocked or overwhelmed when people make choices that are different from what I think I would have chosen. It has allowed me to know that I don’t always have to always have it all together. No one does!
I hope that you can accept this peace and freedom as well! I hope that you can give yourself the permission to love yourself and others while accepting all that life gives us. This is the beauty of life!
Love y’all!
Comments