I am beyond ridiculously excited to be part of The Messy Beautiful Warriors Project with Glennon and Momastery. Giddy. And terrified. And freaking out a little bit.
I’m not a writer, but I am a Monkee, so I will do my best to share with you my messy beautiful.
{This essay and I are part of the Messy, Beautiful Warrior Project — To learn more and join us, CLICK HERE! And to learn about the New York Times Bestselling Memoir Carry On Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life, just released in paperback, CLICK HERE!}
I don’t run. And by that I mean I hate to run, despise running, would rather do bedtime with 4 littles (gasp!). My husband even bought me this bumper sticker so I could show my passion with pride.
I guess it’s ironic then, that I constantly relate life to running a race. I can’t seem to fight the feeling that I am in the middle of a very long marathon and that I am losing. I’m pretty sure I am perpetually in last place.
I am a wife, a mom of 4, a blogger, and a small business owner. I run (metaphorically, of course), my legs hurt, I’m tired and when I look ahead the horizon is empty. In my mind you are all so far ahead that I can’t even see you. You are hosting pin-worthy parties while wearing heals and earrings, and even helping your kids get their 2nd grade animal reports turned in on time.
I’m back here in the hoodie and flats. Running. Always frazzled and late, being reminded of the stupid animal report the night before. I’m pretty sure I owned earrings and heals at one point, but I can’t remember. They probably fell off during all the freaking running.
Messy is definitely a word to describe my life right now, if only because of the never ending poopy diapers and little bums I wipe every day. Messy, hard, and exhausting. But here’s the thing, the race actually gets really beautiful when I fall. And boy do I fall. Not a little trip where you jump up and make sure no one saw. I’m talking arms and legs flailing, head over heals, positive everyone is pointing and laughing kind of falls.
And when I’m down the most beautiful thing happens. Hands reach out and I finally look around. Not just ahead, but right and left and I realize I’m not alone. I’m not on my own and far behind, I’m surrounded by other women and mamas in the middle of the mess. I’m surrounded by family and friends, love and kindness. And beauty.
Hands willing to share bandaids, wipe tears and remind me that we are in this together. To remind me that life is hard, but good. To remind me to look around for other face-planted warriors who need my hands.
Together we sit and rest for a moment. We share the beauty of “me too” and of “we can do hard things.” And eventually we help each other up, dust each other off and help each other continue on the journey. In my falls I often recognize things I need to let go of, blessings I hadn’t realized, and feel the love that is all around me.
I wish I could remember these beautiful truths for more than a few minutes at a time. I wish I didn’t start looking forward and feeling behind again so quickly.
I guess it’s a good thing I fall so often.
Please don’t point and laugh. 
Love,
Tiffany – Messy Beautiful Warrior
If you haven’t read Glennon’s book Carry On Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life yet, I hope you will. It is uplifting, funny, and one of my favorite books of all time.
I am excited today to give you the chance to win a copy of this incredible book! I’m buying 3 of you a copy of the newly released paperback!
The post The Race I Cannot Win – My Messy Beautiful appeared first on Feel Great in 8 Blog.
