A Miracle of Carbon & Conviction

The first time I heard the phrase transcend and include was in Madison, Wisconsin at the Hold The Standard Summit. This concept Logan Gelbrich spoke about still resonates in my soul but I still have to remind myself from time to time. I transcend and include. The truth is, everything that occurred before has conspired, sometimes brilliantly, sometimes clumsily, to make me who I am today, and it lingers like an old cologne. Faint but familiar. What happened before doesn’t keep me from growth. It is a part of me that I now celebrate with the serene resignation of someone who’s endured the brutality of adolescence and every version of themselves that tried to find their purpose before 25, because I understand everything was a step down the path to who I am and where I find myself today.

We all have a story.

Yours is yours.

Mine is mine.

You sit where you are now, reading ramblings masquerading as meaning. This black text on a glowing screen. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, you are where you are and who you are because of the events that preceded today. You are, in this moment, a peculiar miracle of carbon and conviction. You are loved, valued, and needed. Your story shapes your interactions in the world around you. Whether you realize it or not, it all filters how you hear, speak, see, and experience this life.

I would like to encourage you to begin to experience the moments in life for what they are and not what you assume or assign them to be. Our brain, ever the overachiever, does a wonderfully efficient job filing things away like an OCD librarian. Feverishly shuffling through folders labeled Good, Bad, Right, Wrong, In, Out, and the like. Depending on our own filters, we will often miss the intent or true message being communicated because of the combination of the stories we tell ourselves, the filters we use, and the emotional residue of our past experiences. All of which run the risk of altering how we categorize someone else’s words and body language.

So, pause. Take a breath. Take note of what’s happening in your head and in the pit of your stomach.

Let the moment be what it is before you rush to label it.

Your internal world isn’t asking you for judgment. Its giving you an invitation into presence.

As you grow in your ability to be present and connect deeper in self-awareness, you don’t leave your history and heritage behind.

Expanding your self awareness will give you the ability to see yourself with eyes of kindness and a mind that shines bright like the beam from a lighthouse, cutting through the emotional fog of assumption with poised clarity.

This is the work. Step into it.