Is there anything we can be certain of?

Uncertainty, the word of the day for the last year. 

And the word which continues to be a theme more than one year later. 

It’s like covid just showed up on our doorsteps one day and has now left us feeling so uncertain about what our lives can and will look like.

It has left us feeling so uncertain about our futures. 

Wondering when schools will open, if they will open, when our kids can play with their friends again, when we can play with our friends again. When we can travel, see our grandparents, have people meet all the new babies. 

And it feels like all this uncertainty is new. 

Because it used to feel like we knew what was going to happen. 

It used to feel like we had some certainty in our lives. 

Like I was certain that I was going to spend my mat leave with my friends who are also on mat leave. 

I was certain that parks and restaurants would always be open and that I would always be free to be with my parents whenever I wanted. 

And then I was certain that lockdowns wouldn’t have gone on this long. 

And I was certainly certain that when Toby went to school he would be going in person and definitely not virtually. 

But what if I was actually never certain about these things? 

What if I just thought I was.

But really, my future, our futures are not certain at all.

To me, that initially feels icky. 

And then I wonder, but what if it wasn’t?

What if what happens next for us is always uncertain and is actually supposed to be that way?

And the discomfort we feel when we don’t know actually comes from thinking that we should know or can know exactly what our futures will be like. 

When in fact that is not at all true. 

Because if we aren’t supposed to know everything that happens for us and if uncertainty is actually the fact of our human existence. 

Then what?

Then we might stop worrying about our futures and trying to control all the things in order to feel certain and instead focus on what we can be certain about. 

Like…

Certain of how we show up in the world.

Certain that we can and will handle all that comes our way.

Certain that everything that happens in our life, happens for us and not to us. 

And certain that we will always figure everything out.

That’s what we can be certain about. 

And, if you want to feel certain of you so that you can release some of the anxiety that comes along with the what ifs, then reach out to me. I can help you stop feeling worried about the future and instead feel confident that whatever it ends up looking like for you, you can handle all of it. 

xo

P.S. I am certain that I am the luckiest to have two of the most amazing boys in my life. And a husband that rocks the nation too!