Hello Friend,

I hope your week is going great!

Question: How many times have you walked head-on into a (closed) glass sliding door?

Me? More times than I’d care to count.

What emotions fire up on the other side of that unexpected dose of humility?

Humiliation, shock, frustration, exasperation, and perhaps a sore nose among other things.

If people are watching, (and they always are.  This NEVER happens in a vacuum), the old ego needs a bit of time to heal from the gnarly bruise she just incurred.  

If you’re like me, unexpected setbacks feel like a punch in the gut, and all I want to do is slap myself around, dust myself off, pull up the bootstraps, and carry on pretending nothing really happened. “Keep calm and carry on” right?

Well, this approach works good and great for a while, and then eventually we begin to grow increasingly disconnected from the truth of our needs and our pain eventually masks our identity.  Our attachment to ego clouds everything.

This past weekend, I witnessed the loveliest, tiniest, kelly-green feathered hummingbird take a deadly if not accidental nosedive straight past the bird feeder on our deck and into the window behind it.  

Barely breathing and with a broken wing, he hung on to dear life for hours as we nursed him back to health.  He is on the mend at an animal shelter nearby, but I can’t help but contemplate all that this sweet hummingbird taught me.

If you are in the midst of a heartbreaking setback or find yourself still sore from a recent one, I hope you’ll check out a little video I put together for you.

I’ve been tossing around some ideas, or questions, to ask myself next time I experience an unexpected setback:

1) What am I believing to be true about my set back?

2) Is this in fact true?

3) What do I need in order to extend kindness and compassion to myself in the moment as I would a dear friend?

I absolutely love Cheryl Strayed’s quote from her latest masterpiece, Tiny Beautiful Things:

“Whatever happens to you belongs to you.  Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow.  Let it nurture you because it will.”

What setback do you currently find yourself in?  I’d love to hear how you are finding your way through and what comes up for you around these three questions.  Pray, tell…. 

Love & Gratitude,

Katie Gustafson

P.S.  Stay tuned for an exciting fall group opportunity coming your way soon!