Getting Real

This blog has been in my heart for so long.  This is something that is extremely close to my heart.  It is something that will take a lot of time, work, and dedication so it has been hard for me to start.  BUT!  I am not putting it off any longer.  Here's to the start of the rest of my life!

I feel like we, as a society, spend way too much time trying to paint an all too idealistic picture of what are lives are for others and ourselves to see.  We all live horribly messy lives, physically, mentally, spiritually, etc.  They are HARD lives to live.  They don't come with instruction manuals.  I think that most days we look at the huge mess in front of us and we have no idea where to even start so we turn around, ignore the mess altogether, and try to make our lives into something they certainly are not.  All for the sake of "easy."  Or to save face in front of those that we think have well put together, non-messy lives (which is totally not possible, by the way!).  But it really doesn't make our lives easier.  And in the process we lose track of who we really are because what we don't really understand is that if we actually did all the hard work of sifting through that mess one piece at a time, we would find ourselves in that mess, the person that we truly are, strengths and weaknesses and all.

After way too many years of ignoring my own mess, I started the hard work of sifting through it about 2 years.  My life and what I thought it was, what I wanted it to be, has been completely turned on its head.  I discovered that the individual messes in my life that made up the one big mess were actually blessings in disguise, blessings that I had forsaken in my life.  I found hope and love and who I really was, a person that I really love to be.  I have come to love my big, sloppy, messy, wonderful life.  And I wouldn't change any of it.

Now, the point of this blog is to talk about my messy life, to be REAL about it.  In a world where Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram reign supreme, it is really easy to get caught up in only sharing the sparkling, picture perfect parts of lives and enter the cycle of comparing our messes to others' clean parts.  I think it is a very isolating and potentially destructive cycle so I want to make sure that cycle stops at me.

So, welcome to my messy life!  Stick with me as I blog about addiction, motherhood, body image, religion, etc. and as I embrace the messes in my life.  It will definitely be a messy adventure in itself and I can't wait to get started.  I hope that this might help YOU embrace your own messy life and find the wonderful person that you are.  Navigating through our lives is certainly a group effort, after all. ;)  So, hang on!  Because it is going to be a wild ride!