A few months ago, during a season that felt heavy and uncertain, I sat down and made a list.

I called it “The Remembrance” – a collection of declarations and reclamations. Truths I needed to come back to when I forgot who I was and what actually mattered.

I put the list on my bathroom wall. And almost every night for the past six or seven months, I’ve read it before bed.

There are seven remembrances on the list, and a few of them have quietly reshaped how I move through my days…

Do what you love, but most importantly, love how you are doing it – and change whatever needs to change so that you can.

Find safety to rest in the life that is here for you now… and make now magical.

And then this one, the one that stops me every time…

Maybe the whole point was to arrive here.

The Chase That Never Actually Ends

I think what all of these remembrances really come down to is one thing.. the permission to be present.

Because I spent so much of my life chasing bigger things. Waiting for the next milestone to come. And then it would come… and I’d already be reaching for something even bigger. There was always a next destination, a next level, a next version of my life that I thought would finally be the one where I could exhale and say, okay, now I can enjoy this.

And I think so many of us live that way without even realizing it.

We tell ourselves that presence will come after. After the revenue goal. After the move. After the rebrand, the launch, the healing journey reaches some finish line. But there is no finish line. There’s just another horizon. And if we haven’t practiced being here, we won’t suddenly know how to be there either.

The chasing doesn’t stop because we arrive somewhere new. It stops because we decide to stop running.

The Rocking Chair Question

Here’s a vulnerable example that made this so clear to me recently…

My husband and I have spent the last five, maybe seven years trying to figure out where we want to move next. There’s been this energy of wanting to escape – our house is too small, the winters are too cold, all the stories. But every new location we explored, there was always some reason it didn’t work either. Some objection. Some “not quite right.”

And then one day I asked myself a completely different question.

What if I’m 80 years old, sitting in a rocking chair… and that rocking chair is on my deck, right now? What would I do differently?

And immediately I knew.

I would care for my house differently. I would tend to the land. I would root into my lifestyle in a way I had never allowed myself to, because I was always halfway out the door, waiting for something “better” to arrive.

That question cracked something open in me. Because I realized I had been living in a state of perpetual departure. Always on my way somewhere else. Never fully settling into the life that was already under my feet.

And when I really sat with that, I could feel the grief of it. How many mornings had I walked through my home without appreciating it? How many seasons had I mentally fast-forwarded through because I was convinced the real life was still ahead of me?

The Invitation to Root In

The truth is, wherever you are right now – with the resources you currently have, the space you’re currently in, the season you’re currently living – there is a magical invitation to root into it.

And I want to be clear.. this isn’t about pretending everything is perfect or ignoring the things that genuinely need to shift.

The remembrance says it clearly. Change whatever needs to change so that you can love how you’re doing it. That part matters. Deeply.

But there’s a difference between changing something because it’s misaligned and abandoning something because we never gave it the chance to be enough.

So often we skip over the magic that’s already available because we’re so fixated on what’s next. We put stress in our field. Worry. The constant hum of “not enough yet.” And we miss the fact that the life we’ve been running toward might already be… here.

Loving How You’re Doing It

This remembrance – do what you love, but most importantly, love how you are doing it – has been one of the most transformative reframes for me.

Because we talk a lot about finding work you love, building a life you love, creating something meaningful. And all of that matters. But what I wasn’t paying attention to for a long time was the how.

Was I building from peace or from pressure? Was I creating from inspiration or from urgency? Was the process itself something I cherished, or was I just tolerating it in hopes that the outcome would eventually make it worth it?

When I started asking those questions, everything shifted. Not in some dramatic overnight way, but in a slow, quiet turning. I started caring less about the milestones and more about the texture of my days. I started noticing where I was rushing and asking myself what I was actually rushing toward.

And what I found, almost every time, was that I was rushing toward a feeling I could have chosen right here. Safety. Ease. Enoughness. The permission to enjoy my life as it was already unfolding.

Making Now the Destination

So maybe the whole point really was to arrive here.

Not at some future version of your life. Not at the next level of success or healing or expansion. But here. In this home. In this body. In this season, with all its imperfections and loose ends and unanswered questions.

What if this was never a layover?

What if you stopped waiting for permission to enjoy the life you already have and just… started?

That doesn’t mean you stop growing. It doesn’t mean you abandon your dreams or settle for less than what your heart is calling you toward. It means you stop postponing the magic. You stop treating presence like something you’ll earn later and start practicing it now.

Because when you do, something really beautiful happens. The stress quiets. The body softens. And you start to realize that the peace you were chasing was never at the destination.

It was always available right where you were standing.

Maybe the whole point was to arrive here. And if you choose to see life that way… what magic could you create?

Grounding Into Your Body This Week

Notice if there’s a space in your life – your home, your morning, your workspace – that you’ve been neglecting because you’re waiting for “the next thing.” This week, tend to it. Light a candle there. Clean it. Sit in it with intention.

Let your body feel what it’s like to root in rather than reach out. That simple shift from escaping to arriving can change the way your entire nervous system relates to your environment.

Writing Your Own Remembrance

Write your own remembrance list. What are the truths you forget when life gets busy? The things you know deeply but lose access to when the noise gets loud?

Put them somewhere you’ll see them daily – your mirror, your nightstand, your phone wallpaper. Let the repetition bring you back to your center. There’s something powerful about reading your own truth back to yourself, night after night. It rewires the default.

Bringing This Into Your Work

Ask yourself honestly – do I love how I’m doing this? Not just what I’m building, but the way I’m building it.

If something feels heavy or off, it’s an invitation to change how you’re creating, not necessarily what you’re creating. The process gets to feel like something worth protecting. Your work gets to carry the same magic you’re cultivating in the rest of your life.

And if you’re not sure where to start… start with the question. What would need to shift so that I could love how I’m doing this? Even one small change can open up a completely different experience.

Xoxo, Lauren