Chippewa Valley 5ive for Women The Chippewa Valley’s Premier Magazine for Women!
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Not everyone can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service… You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ladies, mamas, my beautiful readers, we are all just trying to make it; the core of what really matters is that all of us are the same. Everyone wants to fulfill the highest expression of their selves. Whether a stay-at-home mom or a corporate executive, whether college educated or never finishing high school, we are all trying to make it. And none of us needs to be defined by what someone else says about us. That simple message has taken me almost half a century to learn. I have learned through much work and self-reflection that I alone am enough.
Another brutal truth is that no one but you is showing up to fix what is broken. It is our responsibility to fill up our own cups. Only when I have my cup full can I honor me and share my gifts with others.
There is not one experience—good, bad, or otherwise—that has happened to me that has not helped me evolve and grow. I am choosing (and it is a choice) to honor myself. I will not live in grief and bitterness and shame. Instead, I choose to embrace what is, to be of service to something bigger than myself, and to help others along the way. None of this is easy. It takes time, energy, and facing sheer fear to do the work to fix what is broken. I am becoming the best that I can be, perfectly imperfect.
My beautiful readers, this issue’s theme is light-hearted: fix it and forget it. (Perhaps I was under the influence agreeing with this theme? Kidding, of course.) The truth is we all have stuff; and although I have tried—Lord knows I’ve tried—there are no quick fixes. Life is messy. In the wise words of Larry Hartsough, aka my dad, “No one is getting out of here alive, and you only go around once.” My father died at 61, and he did push the going around once a bit too far, but you get the gist. To fix it and forget it is to start that process in whatever way that is for you. I am so excited to share many of the great ways we can begin to take that first step. As we say goodbye to summer and start the new season of fall, may we all take the time to fill our own cups and accept what is, so that we can be of service not only to ourselves but also to others.
Let’s journey onward in faith, family, friends, fitness, and finance!
