This past weekend I had the opportunity to go back to a place where my journey towards healing began.
A good friend of mine owns a small, quiet lake house about an hour from where I live. Three years ago was the first time we discovered this hidden gem. It was May 2020…everyone remembers May 2020. It was the beginning of the pandemic and life was happening in ways that no one had ever experienced. This lake house became a place of refuge, of peace, of recharge. But more than that, this house became a place of healing for me. We spent time here on 4-5 different occasions during 2020 and 2021. It was during those trips that I found the time to really listen to myself. I discovered just how broken I was, and I began putting the pieces back together here too. It was during my time at the lake house where I began to discover that there was hope.
After a year and a half of doing other things, this past weekend I had the opportunity to return. It has been almost exactly three years of coming and going. What really grabbed my attention was just how different I am compared to the person who stood by this lake three years ago. I found myself feeling incredibly grateful for the process and to be standing on the other side of that season.
Most importantly, I felt the strong and unavoidable nudge to go after all of you who are currently feeling hopeless. Those of you who are walking in a valley, and have been for longer than you want to admit. Those of you who are feeling stuck and like there is no way you’ll ever be out of the funk you are in.
A lot of life has happened for me over the last year and a half, but this isn’t about that. This is about the beauty of shifting seasons in life. This is about how the valley doesn’t last forever.
This is about hope.
You are not alone. I’ll stand in the valley with you and remind you of what is true until you can believe it on your own again.