This morning, the sky was blue, gray, and white. Clouds hung in the atmosphere as if suspended by invisible wires. The sight was breathtaking and humbling simultaneously. It truly felt as if I was going to drive right through a giant canvas painted by the hand of God.

If we were sculptors, we’d be constrained by our chosen medium. We’d call forth from the raw material something different—something created by the marriage of the element and our imagination. It wouldn’t happen in an instant. It would be “a work in progress.”

We often forget to see ourselves as works in progress—beautiful, multi-faceted, absorbing, and self-creating (even when we aren’t aware of it). We are in motion, continually evolving and growing. 

Sometimes I am too paralyzed by the beauty of the clouds, or the smile on the face of someone I love, to move from that moment. I want to drink it in, be in it, be enveloped by it.

Have you ever been in a place where you thought your opinion didn’t matter—that you needed to back down (or back away) and let the more well-versed, more “sophisticated thinkers” be heard? Have you ever felt you’re so messed up, incomplete, and not together that it’s better to dissolve into the background?

If so, please remember that no matter where you are in life or what your circumstances are, you have incredible value. 

Each note in a concerto is essential, each stroke on an artist’s canvas counts, and each word in a tome changes the story. In the same way, each voice of a child of God matters wherever we are on the journey.

When we try to stop the unfolding of life, with all its inherent challenges, we create a vortex of melancholy where we can become stuck in a quagmire that’s tough to escape from. This also happens when we refuse to accept the changes that occur as we—always a work in progress—walk through this odyssey called life. 

I’ve gotten a lot better at sharing that I don’t always have it all together and that I’m connecting the dots as I go along—sometimes in a way that’s seamless and easy, but often in a pattern that doesn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason—until God whispers “well done.”

If you feel you have to pretend you always have it all together, or constantly have your A Game on, please stop. To be peace-filled, you need to honor the creation you are. Like the ever-changing sky, or an art piece evolving, we’re all beautiful works in progress. 

p.s. The late Anthony Bourdain said: “Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.”  

I think this is good counsel for all of us.

With Love,
Kay

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