When I came home late from work last night, I found a treasure hunt waiting for me. It didn’t stop me in my tracks, although I wish it did.
It actually walked me straight to my home office, where my daughter had left the treasure: a message from her evening tea, “Inner peace creates peace in the world.”
This was her way of saying, “I see you, I get it, I care.” (Thank you to Caroline Fleck for putting that language in the world in her beautiful book, Validation.) And yet there I was: back at my desk, still working and problem-solving, even though I was home.
This morning, when we walked the treasure hunt together before school drop-off, I saw it had illuminated two truths at once:
- where I’m at
- where I want to be
These aren't quiet truths. They are screaming. And here’s my growth edge: I don’t want to turn that scream into self-judgment.
Earlier this year, I planted lots of metaphorical seeds in my work while I was healing, and many have grown. These are not weeds to pull. They are seedlings. The work now is choosing which ones to keep growing, and how I want to be as I do it.
This past Saturday, in an improv class, Steven Harris-Weiel offered a reframe that is giving me more access to that kind of choice:
shift from need → want.
I’m running with it.
***
Photos: the full clue trail, and a mirror shot with the bonus gift I found when I finally went upstairs — a drawing full of hugs. All the hugs yes please.
