YOU SHOWED UP FOR YOURSELF

You showed up for yourself today.

Might not have looked like much.

You got up.

Got somebody else up.

Found something to eat.

Answered what needed answering.

Handled what you could afford to handle.

Put something else off until you could.

Went to work.

Went to class.

Took care of the kids.

Made the call.

Checked the account.

Cleaned something.

Forgot something.

Remembered something else at the last damn minute.

Got irritated.

Got yourself together.

Kept going.

Regular life.

Except regular life has a way of asking a whole lot from a person.

And some days, you really cannot see that far ahead.

You don't know how everything is going to work out.

You don't know when the money is going to loosen up.

You don't know when the opportunity is coming.

You don't know when all this work you're doing on yourself is finally going to show on the outside.

You don't know when the thing you're building is going to start building something back for you.

You just know what direction you're trying to go.

And sometimes, that's enough.

Not enough to answer every question.

Enough to take the next step.

There's a kind of resilience that doesn't make much noise.

It doesn't always look courageous.

Sometimes it looks like packing lunch.

Sometimes it's making another appointment.

Sometimes it's sitting in the car for five extra minutes before you walk in the house.

Sometimes it's saying, We can't do that this week.

Sometimes it's trying something different with your child because what worked yesterday ain't working today.

Sometimes it's opening the laptop when you don't particularly feel like opening a damn thing.

Sometimes it's going to sleep because tomorrow needs something from you too.

That's showing up.

And I think we overlook that because we're always waiting for progress to introduce itself properly.

We want progress to come through the front door dressed like progress.

Big opportunity.

Big check.

Big announcement.

Big transformation.

Something we can point at and say:

See. There it is. All that work finally meant something.

But a lot of progress doesn't arrive like that.

Sometimes you're already standing in it.

You just haven't gotten far enough away from who you used to be to recognize the distance yet.

Think about it.

Something that would've ruined your whole week now ruins twenty minutes.

Something you used to avoid, you handle.

Something you didn't know how to say, you can say clearly now.

Something you once needed somebody else to do, you've learned to do yourself.

Something that used to make you question everything now makes you stop, look around, adjust, and keep moving.

That's not nothing.

That's mileage.

And when you've been traveling every damn day, it's easy to forget how much ground you've covered.

Especially when you still can't see the destination.

But not being able to see what's ahead doesn't erase what's underneath your feet.

You are here.

You got here somehow.

Decision by decision.

Mistake by mistake.

Lesson by lesson.

Paycheck by paycheck.

No by no.

Yes by yes.

Day by day.

You kept your direction.

So this isn't me telling you to grind harder.

You already know how to work.

This isn't me telling you everything is going to magically work itself out either.

Some things need changing.

Some things need time.

Some things need help.

Some things need to be left exactly where they are.

I'm just telling you to give yourself credit for navigating what you couldn't always see clearly.

Because you did.

You are.

And tomorrow, you'll look at what you have in front of you and make another decision.

That's the journey.

And just in case nobody has patted you on the back for the quiet work, 

the parenting,

the learning,

the earning,

the healing,

the adjusting,

the figuring it out,

the behind-the-scenes, ain't-nobody-clapping-for-this-part work

I got you.

Pat yourself on the back too.

You don't need an audience to prove you've been moving.

Sometimes you can't see very far ahead.

But you know your direction.

And baby, you've been covering ground.

You heard it here first.