Ah-ha!
No need to be everything to everyone.
No need to do it all.
Instead, be who we are.
No need to pretend.
No need to force.
Instead, discover our strengths and exercise them.
Share them.
For we know not who we inspire.
Ah- ha.
Strengths
Mighty Girl
Follow me, she says.
Come along and see what I see.
For I am a mighty girl!
So let me lead.
Because one day, you see,
she will be.
So let me lead. 
Camille Vaughan Photography
Big Picture
I felt the familiar pull. The downward spiral. The fall. The loss of control. The pieces of my life that remained in the wake of my breakdown.
Too much, too soon.
I wanted it all and I was tired of waiting so I forged ahead at a breakneck pace, shattering ceilings along the way.
I gave up my career as a teacher to stay home with our first daughter but picked up a part-time sales consulting job when she was just 6 months. I was successful and I felt driven, until it was more than our family could handle. I gave it up when my third daughter was 6 months.
Three years passed and I felt restless, eager to grab an opportunity to work as a consultant for a publisher of children’s books that I adored. I reassured myself and my husband that I could manage it all, but I failed to consider my innate drive to share my passion, gaining business and momentum along the way until it became more than we could manage.
That’s when I plummeted.
Feeling trapped. Unable to explore my professional potential. And guilty for feeling that my children were getting in the way.
Until I remembered that moment in our kitchen when we chose to try for our fourth baby.
I realized that in that choice, I was choosing her. I was choosing my family. That I’ve had control all along.
I just needed to see the big picture.
These days feel long but the years are short.
I didn’t give up my profession. I chose one: Mothering.
And how lucky I am to be able to make that choice.
Big Picture.
Just Keep Going
Believe it or not, I was the captain of my Varsity Cross Country Team in high school. I attended a tiny, all-girls boarding school just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, filled with rolling hills and scenic trails through deciduous forests. I like to tease that I led from the back because truth-to-be-told I struggled and wasn’t all that good.
Our coach was a Vietnam Vet and also our American History teacher who completely filled the giant wall-sized chalkboard with keywords he would use to tell the story of the battle, using a broken golf club to whack the board and grab our attention when necessary. He walked with a limp, a war injury, and during our running practices would scream, “UP THE HILL, DOWN THE HILL, CAN’T GO THROUGH IT, MUST GO OVER, JUST KEEP GOING.”
I found myself chanting this long after our meets were over. After high school, after an abusive relationship in college, as I worked 60+ hour weeks into the weekend as a teacher, during labor, and now, as a mother of four children with a marriage, house, and part-time sales job to tend to.
Do I want to quit? YES. So many times! So many days! I’m too tired to get over this damn hill and I just want to sit the hell down. But in the midst of consideration, I can so clearly see and hear Mr. Bailey barking orders at me. I can only imagine what he endured to conquer his hills and in my weakest moments, I scrape the barren remnants of my energy reserves and find the strength and will to carry on.
To Just. Keep. Going.
Because the view from the top, I know, is amazing.
Camille Vaughan Photography
The Calling
It’s that little voice.
You know the one I’m talking about.
The one that won’t leave you alone.
That red flag.
That green light.
That nagging feeling.
That encourager.
The relentless pusher.
Lord, you are so annoyed by it sometimes.
JUST GO AWAY.
I don’t want to try something new and different!
I don’t want to leave what I’ve known!
I’m afraid.
But there it is and here you are.
That new job. That new relationship. That child. That move.
And, so long as it is in the direction of progress, it’s our job to listen.
If only we could trust . . . and listen.
Hurricane
Like, seriously. What in the actual $*&% am I supposed to do.
A real hurricane is headed our way and yet, I already feel like I am in one.
How many fires a day can one firefighter endure before she needs a break?
So many little personalities, so many big needs.
The demands seem insurmountable.
Until I remember where I’ve been.
And how much more challenging it truly can be.
So, I cry. I mourn my inability to juggle it all. To feel like a “good” mom.
And I focus, instead, on what I do have.
A family. A free country. Health. Resources.
I exhale.
And I begin again.
All Was Well
20 months apart, it appeared nothing could separate them.
Until our third arrived.
The eldest went to school, leaving the middle to be a big sister on her own for the very first time.
She took it lovingly and ever-so-seriously, out of which an unbreakable bond was formed.
The Middles.
#2 and #3, inseparable, especially when #1 returned from school.
So, we had # 4 . . .
and all was well, again.
Camille Vaughan Photography
Destiny
It’s difficult to describe the moment you realize you’re on the right track.
And that moment came to me today, when I very matter-of-factly explained to my 7 year-old that in addition to becoming an inventor, fashion designer and mommy, she could also be a writer because, didn’t she know that besides her own mother, my parents had each written a book?
I retrieved them from our library and set them next to one another.
And it dawned on me.
I’ve arrived.
This is where I’ve been headed all along.
The line, not straight.
The path, not clear.
The destination, the same.
A writer.
Dreams
You wanted to sleep on the floor of our bedroom.
I reassured, you were no safer than your comfortable bed.
Shaking and sobbing, you wouldn’t believe me until I explained:
It’s not my job to hold your fears.
Rather,
It’s my responsibility to cheer you on.
To remind you that your courage comes not from me, but from within.
That there, is where you discover your dreams.
The Traveling Salesman
Wrinkled.
The best way to describe my fingers.
Saturated.
My undergarments.
Rain.
Nonstop for 9 hours as I walked door -to-door on the streets of small-town Ohio.
The Traveling Salesman.
Finally, someone answered.
The furniture, well-worn. The space, cluttered.
Thoughtfully, he leafed through my encyclopedias as he listened to my pitch.
Sincerely, he asked if they would truly help his children.
It was the question I had been trained to answer.
I glanced at the Britannicas on his shelf, knowing very-well how much he had sacrificed to pay for them.
And with my first sale of the day within arms reach and tears in my eyes, I shook my head “no”.
No, you don’t need these.
No, this is not worth the “sale”.
No, this is not for me.
And with that, I thanked him for his time and made my way back into the rain.
Face up. Cleansed. Renewed.
The traveling salesman, no longer.
