My yard was coming along.
That is the phrase I kept using.
Not finished. Not perfect. Not exactly what I imagined yet.
But coming along.
There was progress. The flower beds were looking more ordered. The grass was improving. The weeds were being pulled. The edges were being cleaned up. There was enough visible change that I could stand in the front yard, look around, and feel a small sense of satisfaction.
Then the neighborhood irrigation pump broke.
And just like that, my yard that was coming along had a setback.
It is not ruined. It is not hopeless. It is not the end of the story. But it is also not quite what I was hoping it would be at this point in the season.
That feels about right for life.
So many things are coming along until something breaks, shifts, stalls, or changes. We make progress, and then we lose momentum. We create a plan, and then something outside our control interrupts it. We start to see growth, and then the conditions change.
Still, I find myself already looking forward to next spring.
Next spring, I can try again. I can clean things up again. I can plant again. I can water again. I can watch little pieces of life return. I can once again look around my yard and think, “It’s coming along.”
There is something beautiful about that phrase.
Coming along.
It does not demand perfection. It does not require arrival. It does not pretend the work is done. It simply notices movement.
I have been noticing how many things in my life are coming along.
I am enrolled in continuing education for Nurse Holistic and Wellness Life Coaching. Once again, my learning is coming along! My understanding is coming along. My ability to offer something meaningful to others is coming along too.
There is something energizing about being a student again, especially in a season of life where I could have decided I had already become enough. I could have stayed where I was. I could have kept doing what I already know how to do. I could have decided that growth was for earlier versions of me.
But I do not feel done. I feel like I am still becoming, and I love that.
My education is coming along, and with it, so is the future version of myself who may have more to give. More clarity. More compassion. More tools. More language. More ways to help women navigate beauty, aging, health, identity, transitions, and the complicated middle places of life.
Summer is quickly turning to fall, and I find myself reflective.
There is something about this time of year that makes growth easier to see for me. It is late enough in the year that goals can be measured, but there is still enough time to work on them too. It is also in the days becoming a bit shorter, the changing light, and the cooler mornings that slow me down and give me time to pause and observe. Maybe it is the way the trees begin to release what they no longer need too. Maybe fall always carries an invitation to look back before moving forward.
This year has held a lot of growth and development for me.
Most of it has not been loud. It has been quieter than that.
It has looked like embracing what was, two years ago, heartbreak over abuse — and realizing that the heartbreak no longer owns the story. It has looked like feeling the freedom and beauty of working on myself. It has looked like learning to trust my gut. Learning to pause. Learning to stop over-explaining. Learning to let peace matter more than potential. It has been celebrating truth quietly, but also not sheltering that truth in shame.
I am coming along too.
That may be one of the most honest and hopeful things I can say about myself.
I am not finished. I am not perfect. I am not fully healed from every painful thing. I do not have every answer. I still overthink. I still have moments when I feel uncertain. I still find myself standing in the middle of growth, wondering if I am doing it right.
But I am coming along.
And there is beauty in that.
Leave a Reply