Forget about brown paper packages. That string? Yeah, don’t want it. One of my favorite things right now is Vulnerability. You read that right: Vulnerability. When you’ve had a crap day, and you’re not digging for a mask to cover it. When you were just crying in the grocery store parking lot in your car, and you don’t really care if the mascara streaks are still striped down your cheek. When you say out loud that you’re Not Feeling Like Enough, that Things Aren’t Going Right, that you Want Something Better.
Look! I applied a Vulnerability Filter to my picture!
My name is Maggie, and if you are a friend of mine, then you have shown me your most beautifully perfect feature: Vulnerability. Why is that so important to me, you ask? Because I’m tired of the fake. I’m tired of the trying too hard. I’m tired of the relationships that don’t show me the tough and the hard and the REAL.
Last Saturday night I stayed up way way waaaaaaaay too late. Crying. And Talking. And mostly crying, because I wasn’t feeling like enough. It felt like 90% of my existence is about mediocre, non-threatening, super boring issues that relate to routine, food, and clothing. Do you know how privileged I am to be able to say that so many of my struggles are boring? I’ve shared before that I am so often the crack-filling adhesive that holds together the bigger pieces. I am that thin layer of goop that looks unpresentable and sticky, but is necessary for the whole of the project. Because when I don’t get the job done, so many parts to the working machine fall a part.
Are you a gluey, sticky mess like me? Are you the one that holds so many pieces and gets lost in the puzzle of it? Welcome, friend. Join me for thrice-nuked coffee and mystery leftovers from the fridge, and we shall chat and charm over diaper changes and children noises.
I’m not entirely certain the point of this post, but it has been mellowing in my mind for weeks. Maybe it’s because I have a lot of texts back and forth between my momma tribe friends that ooze empathy and solidarity and strength and woe. Maybe it’s because the demands put on women in today’s society are RIDICULOUS AND UNFAIR. Maybe, I just want a post on the internet that is honest and ripe with vulnerability and that I’m okay with that. So much of our digital lives are pushing for perfection and normalcy and likability. Maybe vulnerable can be the new normal instead.
If you’re reading this, it’s likely you are in some super challenging days. Maybe you’ve got a lot on your shoulders. Maybe, you just need to hear that you are more than enough, that there is a tribe riding alongside you in the midst of the messy, and that despite all the tough stuff, you are amazing. Be vulnerable in your tribe, and you will find a whole troupe looking out for you.
You. Are. Enough.
You. Are. Amazing.
Keep it vulnerable, friends.
~M
❤️