Leather Moto Jacket

Similar Leather Jacket / Ruffle Sweatshirt Top (On sale! I loved it so much I bought it in navy and gray. Size down) / Jeans / Flats (I wear them alll the time! So comfy) / Less expensive bag here / Earrings 

Happy Tuesday and happy August, friends! I want to take a moment to say please pray for my friend Quentin who is in the hospital with serious injuries after a motorcycle accident last week. Please pray for his speedy recovery and for his wife and family. He is being monitored in a very good hospital with excellent doctors, and we are hopeful. We could use all the good energy we can get. Thank you.

In other news, I am wrapping up my two week stint in Seattle to go back to LA, pack up the rest of my stuff, and get ready to make the big move! I have never lived out of California as an adult -- unless you count my 8 month stint in Colorado freshman year, which I don't really count.

There are a lot of changes happening -- I'm moving, starting a new job, getting married, SH and I just got a dog -- I'm very grateful and I think this is an important time in my life to reflect. I have been thinking a lot lately about the difference between "healthy striving" and "perfectionism" since I started reading The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. Brene says that healthy striving is self-focused and sounds like, "how can I improve?" while perfectionism is other-focused, and sounds like "what will they think?" Sometimes I surprise myself with my lack of self-awareness, to be honest, lol. I think of myself as a pretty self-aware person but this healthy striving vs. perfectionism thing really caught me off guard. I have been so concerned with what others think of me without even realizing it. I don't really consider myself a perfectionist in the usual ways one might think of a perfectionist -- for example, I have terribly messy handwriting, I often go outside without wearing make up, I don't mind being seen in my pajamas by my next door neighbors when I let my dog out, you know, things like that. But when I started training Max I noticed I would get a lot of side-eye from people around the neighborhood, and started catching myself thinking, "Max please just behave, you're embarrassing me. What will our neighbors think."

I realized in this moment that I do have some perfectionistic tendencies. But perfectionism isn't real! There's no such thing as being perfect. And actually, when people see me in my vulnerable state, chasing my loose dog around the neighborhood because he ran out the front door, or when I see them in their vulnerable state -- returning my neighbors' dog after he jumped the fence into our yard, again, we connect. We connect over our humanity. Over our pets. Over our wins, and losses. Over our hardships. I had a perfect stranger hug me over the weekend because she heard me screaming for my dog. She ran out and asked if I was ok. If I needed help. She brought dog treats, and a leash. She hugged my sweaty self, panting and out of breath having chased Max through yards.

It was in that moment that I realized how beautiful this vulnerability thing can be. We are all in this together, in the end. And at the end of the day, it's kind of fun to mess up and have some good stories to tell.