Dear reader,
Today’s letter comes on a Friday instead of a Thursday — perhaps a metaphor as I prepare to celebrate a birthday before the next time I write you. In every ending is a new beginning.
This week, a pivotal career decision has been weighing on my heart. You know when the pressure is on? Your risk tolerance, your values, your past, your future all come into question.
The only cure I’ve ever found for overwhelm is simplify, simplify, simplify. What actually matters to you right now? You are under no obligation to be who you were yesterday. And while there may be intense grief, there is no shame in pivoting.
When I feel this way, I think of my great aunt Lucy, my grandfather’s youngest sister.
She was the first of her family from a small village in the backwaters of Kerala, India to immigrate to America. She became a nurse even when everyone she knew told her it was a “bad profession.” She trained in north India, worked in Mumbai and Kenya, and eventually made her way to Texas — sponsoring what would become four generations of family so we could all have a better life. She retired from the same Dallas hospital that hired her first.
She had no idea what would become of any step she took. She simply kept moving forward, doing what she believed to be the next right thing. And we got to celebrate her almost-90th birthday this past week — she was surrounded by the fruits of her hospitality.
Not too shabby for a girl from that village.
Isn’t it wild how a seemingly small choice can change your life and perhaps many more lives? As my mother says: “everything matters AND nothing matters.” We never really know what anything is going to become. Despite what anyone tells us about certainty, there never really is any — in any vocation, any profession, at any age.
I’m learning to move forward even when I don’t know for sure. Especially when the signs aren’t clear and my gut isn’t telling me hell yes or heavens no.
The only rule of the game is to keep playing. And your real game likely isn’t what anyone else is playing. The only rule of your game is to keep playing your game.
Godspeed, my friend, one foot in front of the other.
With much love & to going beyond the surface,
Anjali