Trust the Process

My youngest son complaining about my driving last week brought a prompt rebuke from his older brother " her driving skills are fine, it's her navigation skills that are questionable!" 😲

But yeah, I totally agree, my way-finding skills are not a strength. But at least today we have the google navigator to help guide us, although even google struggles with me, re-routing is a common occurrence. Unlike those really confusing massive street guides we once had to manage AND drive - where guessing the distance to the destination was used via the width of your spread fingers between current location and destination.

Detours and road works didnt show up on those maps or speed camera's. With no warning a 1 hour trip could turn into 2 hours or more and there was nothing you could do about it. Now we can know that we will reach our destination in an hour and twenty-one minutes, and if there is an ever-so-slight change in that plan, Google Maps will quickly inform us.

But making our way through this road trip of life seems to be more of the old-fashioned map variety. “Looks like I should go this way, maybe that’s the best plan, what if it's not? Is this even the way I want to go? What if I don't? Is there a better way? Will I find any decent coffee on this route?”

The not-knowing feels hard because we aren’t in control.

So many circumstances are out of our control - diagnosis, disappointment, natural disasters.

When we lose control we get scared very quickly.

And yet for those of us that have been in the centre of our "out of control" places - sitting on the side of the road crying because this darn map just doesn't make sense kinda places - we know that the long days that feel empty and useless, the lists of questions without answers, they will all become something.

This hard thing that you face will be the very thing that takes you forward.

"The day the seed is planted is not the day you see the fruit."

Just you wait

When you cannot make sense of it, just remind yourself that you do not hold all the pieces of puzzle - yet.

For support please call 0479 055 777

#esthersaustralia #doingthejourneytogether #esthershobart #estherslaunceston #trusttheprocess

Embrace Grace

Today I felt a strong call to start my day on the beach.. It wasn't easy to put down a full day of clients and a back log of notes to just go off to the beach to do nothing... but I did.

I did because this is what I teach my clients to do. That sometimes the best way of being present to those who need you most is to be absent... to take time out - for you, for solitude.

"Take some time to embrace the unforced rhythms of grace..."

Walking slowly on the beach as, my hips no longer feel the need to move me fast, watching others run or walk by me fast and wishing I could run too, I noticed a little bird.... flying high and flapping hard, and harder and fast and faster for what seemed forever but, then soaring... and resting... for sometimes even longer periods of time... and I thought "I'm not here to run, I'm here to rest."

Being present to your little (and big) people requires a special kind of nurturing, a special kind of rest.

Taking time out for you is not selfish or abnormal... its crucial and a service to those for whom you are their everything.

#belikethatbird #soarlongerthanyouflap #rest #recover #rejuvenate #thisiswhatwedo #womensupportingwomen

All you have to do is write one thing - the truest thing....

Surely the most useless thing I bought in 2019 was a 2020 year planner!

But does a year ever fit into a strategic plan - or any plan?

I know that this time last year, here at ESTHERS, we had a carefully crafted strategic plan that was going to propel us into one of the most well organised and successful business years yet. Then came the opportunity to expand into QLD and within a few months we were readjusting our sails headed for the Sunshine Coast.

Our fundraising dinners are always a great example of things NOT going to plan. Learning to hold our plans loosely and continuously telling ourselves that “No matter what happens it will be our best dinner ever!’ has become crucial to getting through the months leading up to our dinners. Last minute changes and factors that were not accounted for can really throw us off rhythm. I guess that’s why we make plans – so we can control the outcome.

The thing is - in this life we can't always control the outcome... Some of the women who come to us for support are a testimony to that. Often there is so much more at stake for her than a "plan for the year." This is going to throw her life out of rhythm - not just a few weeks or months. Ernest Hemingway once wrote:

All you have to do is write one true sentence. The truest sentence that you know.

 Reminding each woman that comes to us to hold onto the truest things - their values, and coming back to that truth on a constant basis helps them navigate the really hard stuff…. the unexpected, unplanned stuff.

““The beauty of unwanted crisis and pain is that it asks you to clarify with more detail what the the truest things are to you.” ”

— Patreeya Thorn

The world will continue to change, seasons will continue to fly by quickly – on the other side of this season we will be wishing we did "more" - read more, wrote more, rested more, loved more  - capturing the moments will continue to allude us. But the truest things - will remain true.

What is the truest sentence that you can hold onto right now? No one can answer that question for you.
 
For me it’s simply: “In a world of cancellations - hope, love and kindness aren’t cancelled.”

Hoping that you can grasp hold of the truest things for you and your family in this season.

Stay safe and go gently,