My goal is to have this blog post be as inspiring as I found Rachel Platten at the Pentatonix concert last night. I was fortunate to be able to take my 2 youngest girls to their first concert.It was so fun to see the concert through their eyes. Both girls are huge "music nerds." (honestly, all 6 of our kids are.) So an A Capella concert was the perfect first concert for them. (Big thanks to Jim who heard they were coming to town before I did and scored some great seats!) It was a huge surprise when Rachel Platten's name showed up on the big screen because she wasn't listed as a performer. Naturally my girls freaked out because...well who doesn't love the messages she writes and shares with all who listen. Be Brave. Fight for--YOU. You Belong.
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| This was taken seconds after PTX took the stage. Natalie smiled the whole time. I think Becca forgot to breathe for a minute or two. |
I love hearing backstories....of movies, books and songs. Rachel was my favorite part of the concert because while I realize she is a performer, she has mastered the ability to make you feel like she is talking to you in a private setting. Sharing her struggles as a working mom, her struggles with self doubt and feeling like she was less than with 10,000 people that in the arena was one of the coolest things I've experienced. She shared the story of her new release You Belong, written while she was still pregnant. How she wondered who's smile her daughter would have, who's hands would she have, and singing to her that no matter the mistakes she makes, "You Belong." As I sat there with my 2 youngest girls, one turning 16 that day, my eyes got a bit moist...it might be that as I age, I'm losing control of my tear ducts a bit or maybe because I loved that how she wrote what every mom and parent feels about their babies.
Though my favorite song she talked about and sang was Perfect For You. She said that it was a low point in her life when she was trying to get her career going and had multiple failed attempts and was low on money. All she heard were the negative things and started to believe those and the little voice in her head that told her she wasn't enough and why keep trying. Then how one day she decided she'd had enough and that she had the ability to change her attitude and what she believed. She had talked about social media and how it's a staged perfect life everyone shares, we need to be vulnerable and show vulnerabitility to have real relationships/friendships and to get big love. This hit me hard because as an adult social media affects how I feel sometimes, I cannot imagine how hard it would be to deal with adolescent or teenage stuff and then add social media pressures too. Last spring I saw all these posts my friends were showing about softball games and crazy schedules, it made me feel sad and lonely because we are no longer in that season and our evenings are a bit calmer. I see the posts about people who have lost so much weight and are now modeling, I see posts about a perfectly finished bedroom, lawn, or house and I found that those do affect my heart, my mood, my energy level. If it affects me, an adult that should be past peer pressure, self doubt, listening to that voice in our heads...how is it affecting our kids?
Why is it so hard to put real stuff out there? Why do we feel the need to share only the great, amazing stuff we do? At my son's graduation party he made a poster board display of all his fails and labeled it, "Wall of Shame." It had things like a speeding ticket, a failed test, a bad hair color choice, pictures scars or scabs from bike wrecks, injuries from being so "out there" when playing a sport or just being a kid outside. I will never forget his response when I asked why he felt the need to share this stuff. "Because at graduation parties everyone always shows their successes, their awards, honors cords and never the mistakes they made along the way. I find it refreshing and like I'm normal when I see that others had struggles too. So why not show mine?" At 17, he was wide beyond his years.
So, in an effort to follow what I learned while listening to Rachel Platten at a PTX concert I will be living a more present, "real life" sharing all the good, bad and ugly my life has to offer. My social media viewing has been diminishing anyway, but after the concert, it will be dropping a lot more. My posts will be more positive, real and hopefully inspiring to others. I try to be positive and inspiring to those around me in general and I hope that on social media this effort will also shine through.
Find joy in your life adventure.
