Yesterday I released a vlog on YouTube entitled: Normalizing Normal (If you’re interested you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/_yN7aRyeM7w (shameless plug).
It was probably the most freeing thing I’ve done in a while because I managed to find the words to confidently convey my discomfort and opposition with the way the world says we ought to do things.
I was so on fire about this message that I recorded the video looking like I had just rolled out of bed with the most stiff of hair.
It’s alllllright.
I said, what I said.
I looked how I looked.
Life continued.
The overall message for that 22 minute video was this: "While we live in a society that usually only broadcast and shows people in their arrival state, it is equally as important for us to highlight and even normalize living normal lives AND appreciating the process to getting to wherever we are going.”
The Waiting Space was created with this in mind: we are always in a state of waiting, even when we arrive. As a matter fact, after we gather the very things we think we want and need, we naturally will want more, which then puts us back into a place of waiting for the NEXT thing. My blogs intentions were to discuss and to explore how to live our lives fully while waiting. How to make sure we aren’t growing discontent and even (dare I say complacent) getting from one goal to the next.. Exploring life and all of its complexities.
Recently however, as mentioned in the vlog ( https://youtu.be/_yN7aRyeM7w ) I got real quiet and decided or at least came to this AHA moment that I am in my career, I’m single, the money I make is fitting for a household of one (since it’s just me currently.) I am well traveled, I have the things I want and need……..but, I want to publish a book, create a stationary line, lose weight, encourage women and people in general, become a motivational speaker, teach the word of God in a way that is easy to understand and apply to our walk, I want to become debt free, I want to plan a family reunion for my family, I want to relocate some days to a place I’d never see myself living. whew— take a breather…I want to publish children’s book’s, I want to release a devotional, a poetry book possibly under a pseudonym, I want to host a conference, I want to plan events in Columbus for people to get together find community and talk, I want to die empty. The funny thing is life has taught me that, the more we acquire, the more we desire. Exposure, expands.
The more we acquire, the more we desire. Exposure, expands.
Exposure is like a Forrest fire. You light one tree and before you know it, another one is lit and so on and so fourth.
While I LOVE the waiting space, (it is my BABY. I birthed a space where I forced myself to stretch) I found that it also has boxed me in, (or maybe I’ve out grown, or completed it’s intended agenda for the season of it’s fruition) according to where I am going. So this blog is undergoing a name change. A very simple one. Nothing fancy. I’ll announce it soon. My goal in changing the name is simple: to un-box myself. I am naturally an encourage-r but I am finding, the older I get that I am SO much more than that and I want to show you all that. I want to document it for myself and for you. I want to go against what “works” and create content that I enjoy and take complete autonomy over my work. (Kind of getting back to that pure passion of “even if it’s only for 1 reader mindset.”)
My revamp work will include a VARIETY of things all drawing back to me. All encompassing. My thoughts, my writings, my experiences, my failures, my learning moments, testimonials, new love and old love, my students, my dreams and a host of other things. I’ll still be encouraging you in your waiting, but I’ll also educate, minister, motivate, share and grow with you and in front of you. All the while normalizing the simple things and the finer things in life. The struggles and the triumphs. I want to take authenticity to a new level and my prayer is that it sets a fire in you to enjoy life where you are, to enjoy the journey of where you’re heading and to live the entire time through and through.
I can’t wait to write more. I can’t wait to SHARE more.
Who would’ve ever guessed that we are capable of boxing our selves in. (unintentionally) Oh, the many things I’ve wanted to write and simply didn’t…concerned that my readers would find it strange or completely random. LOL! (Who cares? My real ones gonna read it regardless because they want all of me, not just parts of me. [as society teaches us].)
I call out the writer in me, in the name of Jesus! (yes, I just did that.) I demand that the writer, educator, advocate, creative, business woman, nurturer, wife, mother, sister, friend and all the other things I’ve been blessed to be or to become comes forth and that everything I write and create plants seeds of life, purpose, love, newness and hope into everyone who reads it.
See you in the next blog post.
XoxoXOxo,
Alicia Elizabeth
