“In Mexico people wear hummingbird amulets around their necks to show they are searching for love. Here people pretend that they aren’t. Searching.” Francesca Lia Block
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Why do we try to act as if we have it all together?
about me
- Karina
- I see things in things that are not always about those things and they inspire me. I am a collector, a painter, and deeply interested in how people leave their mark in the world. I love moving things around and wandering through words + places to feel alive.
SHOP PAINTINGS
This is really interesting to me because where I am, both geographically and personally, it is all about the search. I certainly am searching these days and everyone around me seems to be very upfront about it, too. Could it be that it's just Port Townsend? After all, the town motto is "We're all here because we're not all there..." Maybe we are unique in that sense.
ReplyDeleteI love all your thoughtful posts, Karina.
God, I love that town motto.
DeleteMy close friends who are standing on shifting sands are upfront about it too. But as I navigate the waters of the larger world, sometimes the online world, I sense that people often project an image about having it all together. I can't imagine people willingly wearing a literal sign that indicates, I am in flux, I am looking for something that I don't have.
I think to some degree we are always searching. I am now in a place that I know what it is that I want to do, I am just walking a new path, so I feel a bit uneasy. I am searching for the right steps to take and the best way to put myself out there. Maybe I feel like I have an amulet around my neck that says, I don't know what I am doing. However awkward that feels, at least I am doing it. :) Thanks Katie for your thoughts, I always love hearing from you. xo
Maybe that's why I'm drawn to blogs like yours and others I read, where people are really up front about the search? I can't fathom "having it all together." Wouldn't that mean we're just perfect and done?! What a terrible thought...
ReplyDeleteYes, you are right, I would not want to be in that place. I guess we are always on a spectrum of searching. Even if we are not looking for the "what am I going to do with my life" answers, we are looking for the next step to take, the next project to tackle, or the solutions that will help a challenge within our family. It's always something. Maybe the biggest skill to master is that of being ok and honest with not always knowing where you are or what you are doing. Thanks Erin. xx
Deletefrancesca's honesty is so refreshing. that is why i have fallen in love with your blog. you are authentic and you validate a lot of feelings i have as well. thank you! after being a stay-at-home mom for 5 years i am looking for a job. i'm in such flux and uncertainty about the career path that will make me happy. it's comforting to know that there are other women out there that are searching.
ReplyDeletelove this post xxxx
ReplyDeletei'm reading 'daring greatly' which speaks to this exact topic. have you read it?
ReplyDeletevulnerability.
...also, i just read an article last night, with this quote (that i love)~
"Unalloyed honesty is the iridium of the information economy — vanishingly rare, and therefore precious. We don’t respect people like Louis C.K. or George Saunders because of their credentials; it’s because they’re among the few people in public life who’ll say anything obviously true — or, at the very least, anything they really mean."