Optimism and I work together in a dance. I think it is funny when people say they’re surprised I find optimism difficult. Smiling and wearing all green = happy person, no? But it’s hard for me. The gear shift between “everything is awful” to “everything is a fucking miracle” (available in postcard form at okayshoe.com 😉) is clunky. I have to hold both in hand to feel the miracles of being alive. I have to have the galaxy of the spectrum alive in myself to make them both true.
So I choose to dance with them. Don’t take a bite and ingest optimism so deeply in my soul, I stay open to the optimism fairy coming down. Tapping me on my shoulder and saying “wanna play” and being ok enough to accept the invitation. I reach out a hand and say “ok optimism what have you got for me today” Not forever, not even something I have to hold, but just an invitation to try and work together.
I take the long way home and sit in the parking lot of my local nature reserve to drink my coffee and eat a scone alone. I face the apathy of the world by looking it in the face and provide evidence the opposite is true, I offer my neighbours in tents extra scarves and pad out a bad day by extending a dollar to a friend that needs it. Resilience comes from deep healing so on a day where all I can do is hand jive with a fairy that says “hey look at the trees”, I can extend my arms out and make it to the dance floor.
Everything is awful and I know that to be so deeply true. I have the evidence. But I stay dancing with optimism to collect the evidence of miracles. I am like an explorer in the galaxy, traversing between planet hell and planet heaven. To hold all my exploration and treasures of the world and say YES I SEE YOU AGONY BUT LOOK AT THIS TREASURE TROVE OF PROOF BOTH ARE TRUE ALL AT ONCE.
Dance with optimism
Explode the binary into a galaxy. This is something I have been saying at the beginning of all my workshop but came down from spirit in class the other day
Be alone + don’t tell anyone where you are + make space for that fairy to tap you on the shoulder if it visits AKA “Spy Hour”
This workshop I’m attending – How to NOT Be a Racist Consumer of Coaching
I AM HOSTING A FLIRTY FRUIT SALAD ART HANG 🍉🍒 I cried when Sarah asked me to host. Dancing with optimism allows my community to see all parts of me 🥝
Celebrate yourself - my sweet baby biz Okay Shoe turned two and I am really really proud of me + us (and we have a sale on rn)
If you need a track to dance with optimism to