On Echoing Dissonance, Entitled Delusions and Empowering Dreams
Nothing says welcome to summer like having to pay contractors thousands of dollars to evict birds who were nesting in our walls. 😒
How did they get there? Well, because there were holes in the roofs of our house and families of starlings were coming in and out and waking us up in the morning. They clearly wanted us to understand that we were the trespassers even as we have been paying the mortgage in THEIR HOUSE. 🤦🏾♀️
Adulting is truly a sitcom that we’re all just characters in and the laugh track is silent. 🙄
Bless!
Owning a home is overrated, y’all. And if the birds in my walls weren’t enough…
RANT
These cicadas are trash.
Can we talk about how these cicadas tried to hijack my entire life down in Tennessee?! 🤯
A few weeks ago, I was just trying to mind my own business, there to celebrate my mentor’s birthday. Rolling green hills, warm breeze, amazing people – it was giving all the good vibes to start the weekend.
That is until the cicada-palooza started! 🐜🐜🐜
One minute, it’s calm and serene. The next, it’s like the trailer for one of those apocalyptic insect invasion movies. These lil roaches of the sky started surrounding the whole scene, and it felt like they were everywhere. They make the trees actually sound like they are having a concert.
But the noise wasn’t even the worst of it. They are out here mating and then molting! Piles of them at the foot of trees, crunchy shells to step on everywhere. I heard tales of them dive-bombing into the necks and hair of other guests and I’m just grateful I avoided that level of interaction with them. 😵💫
Apparently, we’re in the return of a 31 and 17 year cycle of cicada invasion. Nature’s way too much and it turns out that even though there is a lot of fun to be had outside, I’m indoorsy and belong inside the comfort of four bug-free, newly reconstructed walls. And I heard they’re already in parts of Chicago so you can catch me inside all summer long, if that’s the case. 🙅🏾♀️
REFLECTION
Gratitude and Entitlement are Opposing Viewpoints.
I think about the ways we can be thankful, and the ways we can be disappointed from expectation. 🙏🏾
To me, the opposite of gratitude is entitlement. To be grateful is to understand that the blessings, the opportunities, the good things, weren’t foregone conclusions, so it’s best to really appreciate them.
Entitlement, on the other hand? To be entitled is to feel owed the good things so when they come, you don’t feel grateful but vindicated. Those who feel entitled think they should automatically receive the accolades, the achievements, the successes. 🥇🙅🏾♀️
Entitlement shouldn’t be confused with confidence, although it might mask itself to look the same. I’m CONFIDENT that I can do anything, but IF I do massive things, I’m GRATEFUL that they actually happened. I don’t feel like it was a certainty.
And that’s the trap of entitlement that so many fall into at times. We start to feel vindicated instead of grateful when the blessings manifest. We think “Yeah, that’s what I’m SUPPOSED to get!” And that’s dangerous because entitlement breeds an insatiable hunger that’s impossible to satisfy.
Once we get into that mindset of taking for granted what good comes, we’ll expect more without satisfaction. 🥀
Gratitude is where the magic is! Gratitude opens us up to receiving with grace. It allows us to breathe deeply into our now. We can bask and revel in the big and the small things, knowing that we receive it all in joy. 🎉
We are worthy, we are deserving of great things. And WHEN we get them, we should find the light in them. Because as much as all those things are true, life didn’t say it owes us anything but BREATH. And even that can be taken away in an instant.
Waking up this morning was a GIFT, not a foregone conclusion. We were not entitled to it, so while we’re here, what will we do with this present?
Every single positive thing we have or receive, big or small, is something to be immensely grateful for because it was never promised. So, take a quick moment today to stop, breathe and be grateful. ✨
RECOMMENDATION
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