Hello everyone,

I’m not even going to start with where I have been or what I’ve been doing or even come up with a long apology or promise for this blog.  I’ll give you two words.  Life happens.

Let’s start off with Covid.  I have been fortunate.  Myself and my husband did not get sick.  We also were one of the first few to get the vaccine.  So that was all good.  I’m an introvert and being told to be at home was wonderful, but not everything in my life was great.

My office took a hit.  A major hit.  Okay fine.  A bit more than a major hit.  A super mega major hit.

While I was grappling with that and also figuring out other things, hits if you want to call them that and things I cannot talk about, I came across this idea where someone said that they messaged their nieces everyday.  I thought, wow.  That’s a great idea. A message a day to lift someone up.  So, I started messaging my own nieces.

I would think about random stuff I have heard.  Like “Let go and let God.”  Or “I believe in you.” I cannot recall all the messages.  I’ve been doing this, I think, since the beginning of this year. When you commit to something, I realized it’s not easy to find inspirational messages, everyday.  I was dedicated to this so I started looking for quotes and messages and sometimes I’ll screen shot memes I see on Facebook or instagram and send that.

There would be days I would feel down and depressed myself.  I would need someone to send me a message to pick me up, let alone send my nieces a message.  All I wanted was someone to send me some kindness.  Of course, I didn’t have a person like that and I still didn’t have a message for my nieces for that day.  That’s when I would reflect on the books I’ve read and the advice from some of the books.  One of the advices when you are down or you think life is going in the wrong direction, is to talk to yourself like you would your best friend.  What would I tell my best friend going through “life”? I started giving myself advice and I would take the advice and make it into the inspirational text of the day.

So, texts may have sounded like, “If you feel like quitting.  Don’t.  Your second wind is right around the corner.” That was what I would say to myself.  That was my way of picking myself up.  And so a lot of the messages were really inspirational messages to myself.  I would text what I craved and what I wanted.  Except it would just sound like a regular inspirational message.

My nieces would usually hit a heart on the message.  And then there were times when my niece would text and say, “Wow aunty.  That message was spot on. How did you know?” That happened a few times and that’s when it hit me.  It doesn’t matter how old you are or how much experience you have or what you do in life.  Ultimately, we all are going through our own trials, whether it is high school or college or job or family or whatever it is.  We all are going through our own struggles and we all need a message to pick us up and that’s when I realized that inspirational messages were universal.

So now, whenever I hear a message that I need to remember for myself, I write it down in my little notes with a date for when that message will go out to my nieces. And of course, I still scan Facebook and instagram for inspiration to keep the texts going.

What are we, if we cannot help elevate each other?

Thanks for reading guys.  Stay safe and healthy.

TTR