Yesterday, I spent twenty minutes searching the house for my reading glasses – I looked on the kitchen table, the coffee table, on my desk, the bathroom and on top of the fridge.
I even asked the cat, in jest, if he had hidden my glasses.
Eventually, I walked past the mirror. There they were tucked into the front of my summer dress.
I laughed. What else can you do?
Then I got philosophical, I wondered whether the glasses weren’t the only thing I’d spent years looking for while already carrying them. Confidence, for example.
I used to think confidence belonged to people who had everything figured out. The ones standing on stages, speaking without notes or walking into meetings as though they’d invented meetings.
It took me decades to realise confidence isn’t something you find. It’s something you notice has quietly been growing while you’ve been getting on with life.
Then there’s purpose
How many years have I asked myself, “What am I meant to do next?” As though purpose is hiding behind the sofa cushions, waiting to be discovered during a particularly enthusiastic spring clean.
Perhaps purpose isn’t lost either. Perhaps it’s been following us around all along, patiently waiting for us to stop chasing everyone else’s definition of success.
And then there’s happiness
We search for it in promotions, holidays, new handbags, tidy houses and perfect lawns.
Perhaps it’s been following us around all along, patiently waiting for us to stop chasing everyone else’s definition of success.
Meanwhile, it quietly appears in a cup of tea in the garden, as a text from your daughter or a friend who rings just to ask how you are.
Life has a wicked sense of humour
Sometimes it lets us spend twenty minutes looking for the very thing we’re already wearing. Perhaps that’s true of more than glasses. Perhaps we’ve spent years searching for qualities we’ve already earned.
Have a good week.
