In the arena
I completed a thing. Have you ever started an endeavor, but did not know the how, the why, or the when? I followed a curiosity simple as that. During the process, I became intimidated and fearful wondering if I was out of my league or trying for something beyond my grasp. Amid these feelings, I kept showing up and pressing through. Yes, I completed a thing. I am literally sitting in a level of soul satisfaction that only comes from pushing beyond self-imposed limits. There is something beautifully humbling and simultaneously earth shakingly powerful about counting yourself in.
Years ago, I read “The Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt. I posted it below from the website www.goodreads.com. Whether you are a man or woman, the speech celebrates the power of showing up and daring to achieve a thing. I think about the times we sabotage ourselves or others for that matter. Fear and past failures attempt to suffocate all hope of a victorious future. We become afraid to step into the unknown as we wait an umpteen number of years for just the right moment to leap. While there is something to be said for timing, we may realize that time is truly the greatest commodity, and there is truly no time like the present to take advantage of an opportunity.
I completed a thing, which is how this whole thing started. I did a thing. I tried for something. I showed up. The outcome is no longer in my hands. I did my part. Recently, I asked God why certain doors closed. What landed on my heart got my attention. A gentle reminder that this year, I tried more things. I expanded and stretched in ways that in the previous decade I had not. Instantly, my feelings about my personal progress changed.
For the last few months, I repeated to most anyone who listened that 2023 is a hard year. But just maybe, my perception is a bit skewed. Maybe this year I spent time on the potter’s wheel getting molded and shaped into the woman that both me and God know I am becoming. What felt like pressure was actually conditioning. Have you ever sat at a potter’s wheel? I have and the experience was different than I thought. It takes incredible skill, finesse, and patience to craft a piece, however the process allows lots of space for correction and do overs. I am grateful for that. In the next season, I will continue to show up for myself, to try for things, and to follow my passions. Some doors will bust wide open, others may close shut, but one thing is for sure, I will continue to pursue.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
www.goodreads.com
-Theodore Roosevelt
So proud of you, I love the poem, think I’m going to print it out and place it in my office.
As usual your timing is spot on Jodi, let the doors continue to shut, so you can continue, doing things!
Guirlll this is the bombdiggity 💣💣
Love You Honeee