I am grateful for God allowing me to make another trip around the sun!

Each night I’m making an effort to sit down by candle light, journal, and just be in the quiet. Focusing on implementing my word of the year: deliberate. I found these prompts that I felt folded into our journey:

Motivation can come from two very different places 👀 ✨ Extrinsic motivation says: “What do I get if I do this?” 🌱 Intrinsic motivation asks: “Why does this matter to me?” One chases rewards and approval. The other follows curiosity, values, and growth. Both show up in our lives — but long-term energy, resilience, and wellbeing tend to grow when we shift from external pressure to internal purpose. 💭 Reflection: What’s motivating you right now — and what might change if you leaned a little more into what matters to you? #EmotionalIntelligence #IntrinsicMotivation #ExtrinsicMotivation #PurposeDriven #GrowthMindset

I feel many can relate to this, even though it says mother. Recently I have realized I am tired of the many groups I have online, in person etc. I allowed my cup to run down to almost empty. Time to shift to being for a spell!! For the mother feeling "useless" in a quiet house, see how Buddha’s wisdom helps 🍂 You walk past their bedroom door. It is perfectly clean. You sit on the edge of their bed. You bury your face in their pillow, just to catch a faint scent of them. For 18 years, you begged them to clean this room. Now, the tidiness breaks your heart. It is 4:00 PM. The house is deadly silent. For two decades, this was your "Rush Hour." Snacks, homework, driving, chaos. You were the Captain of the ship. You were needed every single minute. But now, the ship has sailed. The schedule is empty. You sit on the sofa with a cup of tea, and a terrifying thought rises in your throat: "They don't need me anymore. So... what is the point of me?" You feel like a laid-off employee. You feel like you have been "fired" from the only job that ever mattered to you. You look in the mirror and you don't see a woman. You see a stranger. You think: "I am just a mother with no children to mother." This is not just sadness. This is a Loss of Self. 🏗️ The Scaffolding and the Temple Here is the image that will turn your grief into pride today. Imagine your child is a magnificent Temple. For 20 years, you were the Scaffolding. You surrounded them. You held them up. You took the wind and the rain so they could grow strong. You were essential. Without you, the temple would have collapsed. But now, the Temple is finished. It is strong. It stands on its own foundation. When a building is finished, what happens to the scaffolding? It must be taken down. This part feels painful. It feels like you are being dismantled piece by piece. It feels like "the end." But in the laws of construction, removing the scaffolding is not an act of destruction. It is the Proof of Success. The scaffolding only comes down when the job is Done. If you stay up forever, you hide the beauty of the Temple you built. You are not "useless" now, Mama. You are simply Complete.