Love Life

I love life, and life loves me back.

I choose to say this. I choose to write it. And I LOVE how it feels to believe it.

In 2020, I started reading personal development books because I wanted to develop myself as a leader.

Even writing that makes me smile a little because the word leader used to make me uncomfortable. I repelled the thought. Other people are leaders. Not me.

Life had given me an unexpected gift a couple of years earlier when BEMER showed up in my parents' living room in 2018. I sat on it. It worked. I was curious. So I went to learn more.

And then I kept learning.

Over the years, I began showing up in my community to share the education and experience with others. And there it was again—the next level in BEMER was Group Leader.

Ugh. Leader.

That word I had never connected with. A title I had never imagined pursuing for myself.

I Love Life

As I began leaning into this idea of leadership, I also started learning about affirmations, mantras, our thoughts, and the importance of speaking and writing with intention.

Somewhere along the way, I heard:

I love life, and life loves me back.

Oh, I felt that.

Every word.

YES. This is something I want to align my life with.

For a long time, life had felt heavy. It felt like a burden. There was a lot of suffering, with joy and happiness sprinkled in along the way. It sometimes felt like I was always suffering to something or suffering through something.

But what if my intention became simply:

Love life.

What a worthy pursuit.

And life loves me back?

Yes, please.

And thank you.

My Dad Loved Life

Over the years, those two words—love life—have continued to unfold and take on deeper meaning.

When my dad passed away, it hurt deeply to no longer have him here.

I loved the way he showed up for his family, his work, and his strong belief in the goodness of God. My dad loved life.

He especially loved when little ones were born. He cherished every baby he had the opportunity to hold. His expression of love for life was uniquely his.

When I began connecting my mantra to the precious ways my dad loved life, it became even more meaningful to me.

Love life.

I get to carry some of that forward.

And Life Loves Me Back

This mantra doesn't mean that everything in my life feels good.

I still struggle. I still suffer. I still have questions. There are areas of my life where I don't have answers and circumstances I wish were different.

And still...

I love life, and life loves me back.

Life continues to show up in ways that leave me in AWE.

People who see me.

People who extend grace and kindness.

People who teach me.

Friendships that develop unexpectedly and become the sweetest surprises because of the JOY they add to my life.

Time with my family.

Nature.

Movement.

Learning.

Ordinary moments that somehow become extraordinary when I am present enough to notice them.

I look for the evidence that life loves me back.

And I find it.

Leadership

So, after six years of reading, learning, growing, and engaging in personal development, do I finally feel like a leader?

No.

And that's okay.

But something has changed.

I no longer repel the word.

I'm curious about it.

I'm open to the possibility that someday I may genuinely embrace the word leader for myself.

For now, my focus is self-leadership.

Learning to lead my thoughts.

My choices.

My actions.

My responses.

My life.

Self-leadership is a curiosity and a practice. And I feel incredibly thankful that life has given me the opportunity to lean into it with my whole heart.

Maybe leadership isn't a title I have to become comfortable claiming.

Maybe it starts much more simply.

Love life.

Show up for it.

Learn from it.

Grow through it.

And lead myself through the life that is mine.

I love life, and life loves me back.

And I'm going to keep looking for the evidence that it does.