My daughter graduated from high school (which seems very surreal). I would like to say for posterity sake, I kept her alive, I still have my hair, and I did not mow down one single person in a school drop off line. I definitely think this is award-worthy behavior and I also decided my favorite new mock job title would be “Single Mom Survivalist”. I did it! 

I posted on social media that I think as most people were seeing this (see pic below)

I was seeing this! (see pic below)

Being a mom has been the most extremely difficult thing I have ever done. It has also been my greatest honor, and my deepest joy. Her name (Addie) means “Spirit of Joy”. Last Fall as I was trying to brace myself for her last year of high school and my pending empty nest, processing the letting go… I see a plaque that says, “Unleash your Joy”! I sucked in a lot of air and I planted my feet and gave a loud (internal) shout back, NO! I do NOT want to unleash my joy. I bought the plaque anyway and it has become a kind of mantra to me ever since. It would be criminal if I didn’t “unleash my joy” because this girl, she’s amazing. It would be a tragedy to limit her because guess what, this world needs her, she is extraordinary. Really she is. She’s leaving home and living on her own now and I cannot even.

So I’m writing about all those surprising moments we find ourselves in, especially the ones which we weren’t really ready to be thrown headlong into. Sometimes, we experience situations that unleash us from what’s familiar and send us catapulting, arms flailing, into an unfamiliar destination. It may be as simple as a life transition, or it may be as complicated as loss, betrayal, illness, rejection, addiction…These moments, they rarely feel like instances of possibility or potential but hidden in the unfamiliar instability is a potential that didn’t exist before. It’s welcoming to a deeper relationship with God, a deeper level of trusting Him in which He calls us to a higher level.

This blog is a reminder to myself and to you, about unleashed potential, genesis moments, and restoration. These are our moments of welcoming an unleashing of possibility and learning to live in a new season, even sometimes in the awkward terrible, until we dig out grace, beauty, and peace. You are not alone momma.