"You Can't Skip Chapters That's Not How Life Works. You Have to Read Every Line Meet Every Character. You Won't Enjoy All of It. Hell, Some Chapters Will Make You Cry for Weeks. You Will Read Things You Don't Want to Read, You Will Have Moments When You Don't Want the Pages to End. But You Have to Keep Going. Stories Keep the World Revolving. Live Yours, Don't Miss Out."
Courtney Pepernell
At the beginning of the pandemic, my sister was talking with a friend who said, "We all just need to stay on our own page!" I have thought a lot about this statement. What does staying on your own page mean? How does that look? And why should we be on our own page anyway; isn't that a bit selfish? Before I dig in, let me preface this post with my thoughts on reading...
Up until about two years ago, I had never been a fiction reader: I mostly read personal development books or true-life stories. However, I stumbled upon fiction books that kept my attention, and I have been reading a lot since then. When I found the quote above, it resonated with me and how "staying on our own page" relates to our lives as a book.
We are each writing our own story, but it can be easy to get caught up in someone else's story. I am as guilty as the next person of doing this. We can trail off our own page when we start comparing our lives to others, and this, in turn, results in a whole host of problems that we may not even notice. We can become bitter, jealous, angry, or just plain frustrated with our own life. There is also the problem of getting emotionally involved in someone else's story. Maybe we have genuine empathy for a person and want to help them, but in the process, we fall off our page and get sucked into their turbulence. We may feel the need to tell someone to write their story differently, but it is theirs to tell, so again we need to stay on our own page.
It is easy to lose our place in the story of our lives and not be fully present. One of the best ways I have learned to refocus is by being grateful. I know the idea of gratitude may seem trite. We see gratitude and thankful slogans more and more on social media, t-shirts, mugs, cards, etc.. However, it works for me! I even wrote a whole blog post about it a few years ago titled Gratitude.
On my "page" right now, I am extremely grateful for the things I have discovered or learned during the quarantine. Maybe you're rolling your eyes because this time of isolation has been shit for you, and I totally get that. Not every day has been a walk in the park for me, and some days are better than others. It comes in waves. Again, we are all on our own page. Nevertheless, I wanted to share my quarantine gratitude list:
The morning routine that I started in January has been a lifesaver.
Cooking and actually enjoying it! And if you know me, you know I don't like to cook!
Breaking a habit of eating out way too much.
Grease splatter on the stovetop is really no big deal.
Thursday is grocery day. I have never been so excited to go to the grocery in my life.
Doing my own nails is not so bad.
Learning to cut back on toilet paper and paper towels. I use to go through an absurd amount of both.
My husband working from home. Yes, you heard me right.
Making up for lost time with Steven and Andrew from when I was away at school for a year. I'm pretty sure two months of quarantine equals one year away!
Long walks every day.
Melissa Wood workouts.
My Kindle and sharing books with my daughter, Sarah.
Tuesday's bible study Zoom and the Blessed is She books we are using.
Our apartment garage turned into a porch.
I would love to hear what's on your gratitude list, so please comment below! And if you're not feeling particularly grateful, feel free to share that too!
I am going to end with this beautiful quote from Melody Beattie:
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Blessings to you wherever you are in your story today. May it be filled with Peace and Gratitude!