We Can Do Hard Things

Uprooting your life is really hard. 

Anais Nin didn’t mention that when she said, “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

She also neglected to say you’re not taking one single risk when you decide you can’t remain bound up in a bud. You’re taking one risk after another—and it’s not little risks like “should I ask the neighbor to turn down her music?” It’s big risks that change your relationships, your health, your finances, your identity and your future.

Uprooting your own life is different than when your life is uprooted by something external. When something (a worldwide pandemic, a war, a car accident, a scary health diagnosis) or someone (a family member, a boss, a world leader or even a difficult neighbor) uproots your life, you have no choice. It wasn’t your fault, but you have to respond.

When you choose to uproot your own life—to take a risk to blossom—all the painful consequences fall back on one thing. You. 

You become the source of the disruption in other people’s lives. And they don’t like it! Which makes it really hard to uproot everything and blossom in a new life. 

But guess what? We can do hard things!

One of my new favourite podcasts is Glennon Doyle’s We Can Do Hard Things. That phrase says it all, doesn’t it? I love it. Yes, hard things happen to us—often randomly but sometimes as a result of our own choices. 

And yes, we—not just you, not just me, but we—can do what it takes to get through hard things. We aren’t alone. Even if we don’t have a mom, partner, friend, neighbor or even a pet to lean on in every moment, we have the Spirit. 

Whether you call it God, Yahweh, Allah or a Higher Power, there is a consciousness that threads through our lives. And that Spirit is alive in podcasts, books, videos, emails and even little quotes that echo in our souls. The Spirit is in you and in me, and is pulling us together. 

Sometimes we respond when the Spirit moves us. And sometimes our choices uproot our lives. Other people won’t recognize it’s the Spirit moving, but we know. And we listen even when it’s really hard to uproot our lives because we can do hard things.

In When Life Gets Hard | Welcome to Uprooted 🌱 She Blossoms I offer words of encouragement from a forest near my house in Deep Cove. I hope you drop in; I included a wee walk in the woods and a visit of my home.

With peace and passion,

Laurie

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