When I was growing up I was on a lot of different teams. I played basketball, volleyball, track. I played basketball in college and coached high school girls the last few years. The idea of TEAM and playing for someone other than yourself has always been my love. Chasing goals as a team, encouraging, pushing, challenging. Suffering as a team and winning as team. As a team you usually have one goal. Whether it be winning a game against a rival that you just can't stand or winning a bigger prize like a championship there's always something worth playing for. I think this is where my love for goals came about.
But then you get old, and you don't have a team to play for anymore, you have babies, you get out of shape and fitness/health become an afterthought. The team concept becomes a thing of the past. The old glory days you might call them. You know when I try to convince my husband I was better at sports then he was...and try to beat my 5 year old on his 3 ft basketball goal (did I mention I am also a bit competitive, its a problem...we are working on it in this journey:)
But what if we weren't old and the idea of team wasn't a thing of the past. What if our goal and dreams just changed a bit. What if it was about journeying to WHOLENESS together in all areas of life?
Wholeness= an undivided or unbroken completeness or totality, with nothing wanting.
What if we as a community lived with wholeness as a our goal, as a way of life. Cheering others to the same goal.
- No more negative self talk. But taking responsibility for our actions, our health, our journey.
- Not wanting what others have or being jealous, but celebrating them instead?
- What if it meant lifting up others by inspiring them, challenging, and encouraging them to be the Best version God made them to be.
- What if it meant suffering with others, celebrating with others, and letting vulnerability be our BRAVERY. (i.e. Brene Brown's legitness) You will come to realize I am a Brene Brown girl. We could be best friends if she would just meet me.
The wholeness journey looks different but also very much the same in our different stages of life. The single, the married, the parent all might have different circumstances but our journey will probably be very alike.
When I was growing up I was always told I was worthy of love and belonging and was raised with confidence. Maybe too confident at times. But my journey has been a little different through each season.
THE SEASONS:
Single: Striving to be someone,be noticed, successful. Is what I'm doing gonna matter? What the heck am I even doing? Are you sure this was the path for me? How can I be really good without spending alot of time getting there? Ambition was my hustle, accolades from others was my worthiness.
Married: Striving to be the perfect wife when I've never cooked a day in my life. I literally wore an apron like Bree Vandekamp from Desperate Housewives and took muffins to my neighbors.
Probably really gross muffins, but my apron was at least cute. My husband who has a military background would hide the fact that he was refolding my laundry after my failed attempt to get those t-shirts JCREW folded. It was a sad day... Be yourself Kristi for God's sake. Wrinkles are just my life and 10 years later I have accepted this and have yet to make ironing part of my life.
Mom life: Struggling to be the mom who does not feel guilty for feeling like this job as a mom does not complete me or make me feel worthy at times. That doing ONE, TWO, or THREE-10 more loads of laundry or scraping dried bananas off my kids disgusting high chair, does not make my worth-meter hit an all time high. Or having the guilt gremlins creep in when I have dreams that don't include only staying home with my kids. Being ok to express this and dream and live and parent through my personality and no one else's. Because honestly it would be too hard to fake it and quite honestly we would have lot of crappy crafts laying around the house. It's being ok that I might never be 100% in mom world or never being 100% in my area of career passion. And then being ok with the two merging. Knowing that no ONE way of mommydom is the best and asking God each and every day to help me coach these kids to his heart the best way I know how. His way and not mine. It means being ok with sacrificing, but at the same time being who God made me and not losing myself in the process. To dream and make goals and have high expectations of myself. Not losing my creativity or drive or passion because I have littles.
Wholeness is something I will journey through my entire life. So if through this blog we can share, challenge and celebrate through this Wholeness journey then awesome. If I can help a busy friend prepare a recipe she doesn't have to look up or challenge someone to START their fitness journey, (maybe they join one of our KHOP groups if they live close). Or join one of our online groups if you live far away. Or just encourage a new mom that SHE IS ENOUGH. Then that's what this is for. For us to share life, recipes, inspiration, encouragement, and a little kick in the pants challenges. I hope you will come along for the ride because "nobody got time to journey this alone."