Let people love you
Why I politely demand to know your birthday
We were walking out of a meeting last week when one of our most senior clients turned to the group and said, “Hey, everyone, it’s Joe’s birthday!” I gasped. Joe* is one of our closest working clients, and he (of course) had not shared this piece of trivia with us! We immediately placed a cupcake order to celebrate.
Later that afternoon, I was chatting with Joe and another of our clients, “I don’t understand!” I began. “You need to advocate for yourself — share your birthday, your wins, your exciting updates!”
“But why?” asked Joe.
“You have to let people love you!!” I responded exasperatedly. We all began to laugh, but I meant what I said! I think there is something really, really important about letting people love you — but people can’t show up or celebrate or support you if you don’t use your words. I can’t claim I’m perfect at this, but if I’ve gotten better at anything in the past few years, I do think that it’s been speaking up when I want (or need) a little celebration or support.
I’m not going to force everyone to become a “birthday person,” but I do think that everyone should get a little more comfy with letting people love them — and it’s hard to let people love you if you don’t give them the opportunity!! I am often blown away by how people want to show up for me or love me or celebrate me — until I stop and think about how much I love to do that for others, too!
“Don’t block your blessings” extends here — don’t block the love people want to send your way! How can you open yourself up to receive a little more love this week? And how can you take note of those around you and send love their way as well? What a fun little challenge!
In Christ,
Jane
*name changed, but you can still send him birthday wishes!
What I’m loving lately
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
12/10. So cute and good! I have 46 hours on planes in the next 20 days (!!), so I downloaded one of my favorite books of all time as a little treat: The Nightingale. I remember absolutely loving it about 10 years ago, so let’s see how it holds up to my memory!
“How’s your prayer been?”
This week I had two separate conversations with friends who straight up asked me “How’s your prayer been? What’s the Lord saying to you lately?” Those questions caught me slightly off guard, but they were quite welcome and led to lovely conversations about what God is doing in my life and theirs. It made me think about how often I used to have conversations like that in college (shoutout FOCUS and “how’s your heart?!”). A beautiful reminder of the gift of friendship and good conversations!
Obsessed w this shampoo
My friend Mary brought this Ouai shampoo to my favorite things party this year, and it’s truly the BEST. I love that I can travel with it, and it makes my hair smell so nice. Big fan!!
Lean into the cold
As mentioned above and below, it’s so cold right now in DC — and this year I took a page out of my book from last year which is to just lean into it! I cannot change the weather, and even though I’m sad I can’t spend as much time outside as I want to, there are good things about it being so cold: this weekend I sat in front of a roaring fire for days (shoutout to my father for coming into town and letting me load up his pickup with stacks of wood), made a 7-hour bolognese to host a dinner party, read on my couch, and went to a friend’s house for a fashion show after her trip to Paris (!!) It was a perfect, life-giving weekend — even though it mostly took place inside. What can you do this weekend in the cold to warm yourself up?!
Mittens changed my life
It’s unbelievably cold in DC right now, and I finally bought myself a pair of mittens! These Carhartt ones are amazing… I LOVE them! My hands are so warm they are sweating. A bonus is that when I wear my mittens, I can’t do anything with my hands because all of my fingers are stuck together — which means no walking and texting! So mittens mean that I get to experience more wonder as I wander!
Clothes out, clothes in!
My friend Amanda has an amazing way of shopping— she’s only allowed to buy new clothes with the money she makes babysitting or by selling her old clothes. I recently sold a Cuyana bag that had been sitting in my closet for years, and now I get to use the proceeds to buy the black Longchamp I’ve been eyeing for months!
This made me laugh
Restore the initiative to God
I loved this podcast episode — Fr. John Riccardo offers four steps to discernment in a way I’ve never heard them before. Listen to the whole thing because it’s awesome how he breaks it down, here are the questions I’m taking to prayer:
What name do you call me?
What is most holding me back from following You wholeheartedly?
What is the primary strategy of the enemy in my life?
Based on all that, what’s the single most important thing in my life right now? Where do you want me to attack? What’s most important right now?
Prayer intentions
For my friend Raquel’s dad, Jason, who had a heart attack last week
For the soul of my mom’s friend’s husband who passed away recently