Welcome to another minisode of Solidarity Sister with Kristen Wilson. And let me tell you, it has been a doozy over here. And therefore this episode is going up late. And I want to talk to you a little bit about giving yourself grace, about leaning into community, and about connecting with your true identity. I have to give myself some grace for not getting this episode out when I wanted it to be out. But I just didn't have the reserve.
One of the things that comes from being a mom who loves her kids and is willing to show up is that sometimes I'm really exhausted. Thursday night I was up with a child from 3 o'clock in the morning until 6. 30 and then I maybe would have had like another hour of sleep except I couldn't get back to sleep and so I didn't. And then Friday night, a different child had an accident at a birthday party at a local gym pretty late at night and ended up requiring staples.
And I was up till 4 a. m. going to Primary Children's Hospital and being with that child and, and all the things that happened. I was so sleep deprived that I just didn't have what it would take to put out another podcast episode. And so there's this tendency for us to either beat ourselves up or to give up. what if instead we could just give ourselves grace to go a little bit slower, to be a little bit later.
To not throw out the baby with the bathwater, but to say, I did not have the reserve on that little sleep to be able to show up. But it's okay. I still matter. And I can still get back and do the thing when I have a little bit more reserve. It is okay to allow yourself to rest. It doesn't mean you're giving up. It's okay to not run. It's okay to walk. It's okay to crawl. And it's okay to lay down and take a nap in the middle of the race and then get up and keep going.
I also want to highlight here the value of community. I was so blessed to be able to join this class that I was invited to be part of. And we're listening to this seminar put on by someone else and kind of going through this workbook. But doing it in community and I'm so grateful for the invitation that I had to be there. It's about becoming more spiritually centered. That's the topic. And when I signed up, I was actually feeling really spiritually centered and I thought, this is great.
I'll go next level. this is going to be wonderful. And then I became uncentered and I felt really like maybe I didn't have much to offer this group and that maybe I should just quietly sneak away because that's my old patterning. Before God called me to start this podcast.
And so I stayed and I showed up vulnerably and I said, I don't know that I have a lot to add because it's feeling really dark over here, but I know that the light exists and I see it reflected in you and I'm staying and I'm watching you.
And they held me up so beautifully, the women in this community, and it's small, it's a very small group, and I don't even know how I was blessed enough to be invited to be part of it, but I'm so grateful that it didn't drop out after the first week, just because life got harder, and my reserves were low, and I didn't feel like I had as much to offer.
But the thing is, is I still matter and my showing up vulnerably actually gave other women an opportunity to also show up vulnerably and to share some of their darkness and in that community, we're able to shine light into the darkness of someone else. This is why community matters so much. And if you don't have a community, come and join my Solidarity Sister Facebook community. Come and show up with us there.
Reach out to me, reach out to me privately and allow me to be part of your community to hold space for you and to shine a light into your darkness and to celebrate the light that you already have because that's what community can do for us. It's holding space for each other and it is so vital. We need that now more than ever.
And if you turn away from community because community has wounded you in the past, and if you are part of human relationships, I guarantee that you will be wounded along the way. Sometimes in small ways, sometimes in ways that were accidental and sometimes in highly abusive ways. And if that's the case for you, it is incredibly difficult to show up again in community. But the thing is, is that's where the healing can also take place. is in safer relationships. So maybe be guarded. That's okay.
Guard yourself about where you lean into community, but don't give up on it because we need you and the light that you have and that divine goodness that's inherent in who you are. Through the more difficult seasons, sometimes we can't show up in the way that we'd like to. And if you are like me, and you have spent a lot of years relating your personal value and worth to your performance, it's extra hard.
This season has been a reminder for me that my value does not come from what I can do, from what I can say, from what I can be for other people in their lives. I have intrinsic value as a daughter of God, and that value doesn't change. I think about it as a perspective from being a mom. My love for my children does not change.
You know, I may like what they're doing more on one day than on another day, But I love them through and through every day and even on the days that they're not showing up well, even on the days that they say really rotten things to me, even on the days that they make poor choices, I don't love them less. And on the days that they are showing up so well that they're doing extra nice things, they're doing service, they're winning awards or whatever it is, I don't love them more.
I just love them always because they're mine. And maybe you need a reminder that God loves you, no matter how you're showing up. God loves you, not for what you do, but for who you are and that you are His. That love doesn't change. I don't care what horrible, terrible thing that you've done. It doesn't change. I don't care what wonderful, amazing thing you've done. That love doesn't change. And that identity, not all of my kids have the same religious beliefs I do.
But I tell them if there's on spirituallyy related belief that I could download into their brain and make them believe that I wish I could make you believe it's that you are infinitely loved and that you matter.
And maybe your spiritual beliefs don't line up with mine and you are coming from more of a universe perspective or, Allah or whatever higher power you ascribe to, I hope you ascribe to something that says there is something bigger than we are that holds us and will provide for us and that we can trust and lean into. And even though we might keep screwing up.
that even our screw up experiences can be worked for our good when we turn to God with the pieces of whatever we have broken, which I do all the time. So please give yourself some grace. sometimes we need a rest. But let's not give up. There are good things ahead. There are people who are going to love you that you haven't even met yet. There are talents that you are going to develop that you didn't even know are ahead for you yet.
There are people who are going to touch your life and whose lives you are going to touch that you haven't yet connected with. So keep moving forward. Keep leaning in to the good people around you. Keep being part of the good, part of the solution. You're worth it. Thank you for being part of the Solidarity Sister community. We needed you.