Miles Davis said, “Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.”
Sound. Think, move, look, talk, act, BE…
Amy Poehler talks about how “it takes years as a woman to unlearn what you have been taught to be sorry for. To find your voice and seize your real estate.” It has taken me 36 years, 6 months, and 3 days, to be exact, to claim my real estate, my Self.
A lifetime of letting go of and moving beyond circumstance, influence, insecurity, fear, objectification, and “should”. Of learning to consciously identify, shift, and withdraw participation from (generations of) unhealthy modeling, patterns, coping mechanisms, and engagement in toxic relationships. A lifetime pursuit of stripping away all of the shit and discovering who I am, the person I want to be, the life that I want to live, and what I want to contribute to this world.
Today, Thanksgiving Day, and what has seemed like everyday for quite a while now, I find myself truly, deeply, genuinely happy… Centered, balanced, content, joyful, inspired, present. And not because the circumstances of life have been particularly easy or fortunate. In fact, not because of any external factor at all. I want for nothing, need very little, and see life as nothing but endless opportunity and choice.
So today I give thanks to everyone and everything that has helped bring me here – to this threshold, to this momentary arrival in the endless process of becoming. I give thanks for this incomprehensibly beautiful life. And for anyone who is in the thick of it, trudging along with that glimmer of light somewhere ahead – keep moving. It’s coming.
jen graham 