New Years is wrought with great plans. Plans to eat different. Act different. Save different. Be different. We want to believe that at the precipice of a new year we can become new versions of ourselves. We hope to change! Really! We do. But, then a few weeks in, we’re back. In the same routines. Same old habits. Same bodies and minds and frustrations. Stuck in webs of obligations and dependents and bodies and minds and entire systems that are sometimes out of our control.
So, this year, what if we let ourselves off the hook for becoming someone different? For believing that our best selves are before us, if we just try XYZ. Yes, we are capable of change. But let’s take ourselves off the hook for being GOOD, BETTER, BEST. Perhaps today, it is enough to love and dream and hope and nap and search for beauty and truth and try again tomorrow.
Here is a little podcast playlist to binge as you look ahead toward this new year with different kinds of plans (or listen on Spotify!):
Why the pressure to be positive steals our ability to tell the truth with Susan David:
How ordinary acts of love might be the hope we’re looking for with Bishop Michael Curry:
How to lean into uncertainty with courage and curiosity with Adam Grant:
On finding joy in the midst of a mental health struggle with Jenny Lawson:
On simple encouragement reflects the exact truth we need to hear with Morgan Harper Nichols:
Kate you’re approach to this life is not so much refreshing but truth n in that truth I see me
Thanks for all you do
I love listening to you and your guests because you are so honest and real. We don’t need to hide some of our emotions and only show the ones that have been deemed acceptable. It is how we feel. And that’s ok. They are all things that God has given us to live this life. Otherwise, we just hide ourselves from other people and we miss so much. I lost a dear friend to cancer 10 years ago. It made me really mad sometimes because she died and others lived. I prayed for her but she still died. I had to be able to deal with that. It was difficult, but I did. I let myself experience a lot of things in the months before she died. We shared so much and some of it was difficult but we grew closer. It was a hard time, but I learned a lot and I am so glad we had that time. I spent so much time with her even to the point of moving in with her so she could stay in her house. And it gave me a different perspective on what it means to lay down one’s life for a friend. I always understood that Jesus laid down his life for us. But this let me see that love allows us to lay down our lives for each other. And I would not trade the time I had with her for anything even though it was hard. It was real! There wasn’t time to be fake. Thank you for your podcasts. I love them.