How ironic that the same word can take on such different meanings. This picture took several shots; moving things, adjusting things, cropping and filtering trying to get it right. It’s funny how when I look at a space live and sit in it, it can look complete and yet when you hold up a lens to it, it tends to feel like something is missing. If I’m honest, there aren’t many photos I have shared without some angst, they just never feel finished.

I still am unsure if there wasn’t something else I could have added to make it better and I have to be ok with sharing what might feel imperfect. This is not a new thing. I can think back on many eras of my life where I had to fight with being vulnerable, fight to be content with the process, instead of always wishing for the results. If you are always trying to get to the finish line, you will also always miss the feeling of being in the race.

I remember reading a book and the character had a tree outside her window. It seemed that a storm had come, and the tree leaned forever after, but it lived and bloomed every year. She watched this tree and knew there was a lesson there and I kind of feel that same lesson today. A stooped tree doesn’t deny the storm, the process and story of its life, but actually shows perseverance, character and hope because of it. The tree’s story is not left in the insecurity that it’s not straight anymore; the story comes when it blooms every year anyway! I wouldn’t mind being a stooped tree if what the world and my family saw perseverance, character, and hope in me.

So, I will keep on. Maybe taking too much time cropping a picture and still wondering if it is right, finished and valuable. I am challenging myself (and you) to trust that I would always want to be lopsided and hopeful, then not. I think the best way to describe that, is to be content. Content in unfinished spaces…Content in kitchens without backsplashes, rooms without curtains, bare bathrooms, empty hallways, and unhung pictures. And I am wishing the same for you. A cropped picture might feel incomplete but the live view does not have to…and those little eyes in our homes are watching.

So that’s it…I will be content with my content (see what I did there). I really can’t thank you all enough for coming along with me. Truly, I hope that I can inspire life and home, even if I’m tripping all along the way. Let’s be lopsided trees!