To My Daughter,

I want you to catch me deliberately showing myself grace, so that you know that it is ok and truly fruitful to show yourself grace.

It wasn't till we were in the midst of the 7th week of shutdown in a global pandemic, that I realized what level of grace I needed to model so that you could start to give yourself grace.  We show some level of grace to ourselves on a regular basis, but in the unhurried still that has become our new rhythm of life, our opportunity for grace that we can show ourselves is boundless.  I want to show you that I am willing to give myself grace for letting go of that hurried, and dominant level of expectations for myself.  

I want to show her so badly that I am capable of showing myself grace, because I know that she will need this self-awareness to harness what is truly good in her own life.  To reset my core values, and to give myself a lighter burden. It is only in this way that she will...

This past Monday, I did not even realize that it was a Monday before I had put on makeup. I know that I am truly in the habit of going makeupless each and every Monday, or at least I had been. It’s in my planner, it is in my digital calendar, and it did not happen. When I was reaching for my mascara that morning, I started going through the activities of the day in my head. You see, I had been in the habit of putting on full makeup for the past 2 days due to a video shoot, and then a music video shoot that were both over the weekend. So the makeup went on, regardless of the date. So here I am, putting my mascara on and thinking about the day. I had a particular appointment that day that I was literally thinking, “I wonder if that would be awkward for them, since I won’t have makeup on?”. This was my very thought as I was swiping that mascara on to my lashes. I looked in the mirror and instantly felt guilty. I felt like a fraud. I felt like I was lying to...