Hey there! I’m Mikala—a family doctor, wife, mother of 5, well-being advocate, and author of the books Ordinary on Purpose and Everything I Wish I Could Tell You About Midlife. Each month my writing reaches millions of women, but I am thrilled to be connecting with YOU. I’m truly grateful to have you here!
All in Life
I can’t believe this is my life. It’s messy and hard and ordinary and mostly unplanned. And so ridiculously beautiful.
Can I invite you to ignore the extra flesh and the new gray hairs and the soft tummy and even the fine crow’s feet? And instead, will you zoom in very close and notice your eyes?
I think we’re missing out on the fabulous beauty midlife has to offer while trying to cover our age spots and blemishes with creams or smooth our crow’s feet with medicated patches or inject away our forehead wrinkles. Let’s embrace the years!
None of it feels shiny! And it certainly isn’t perfect, but it IS beautiful. Life happens in the ordinary after all!
You should get up early every morning to pray and read and do morning yoga and somehow be thinner, prettier, healthier, younger, and more self-confident while volunteering, working outside your perfectly organized home, and putting your marriage first all while spending more one-on-one time with each child…whew. “The Shoulds” have got to go!
It’s sobering to know that before IV antibiotics were widely available, my daughter’s particular diagnosis had a blindness rate of 20% and with certain complications, a mortality rate >40%.
If you feel like you are failing your child, I have a story for you.
I remember that I am not wired to carry the weight of the world. It isn’t fair.
This is how I want to live the rest of my days—listening to my body. Moving her and feeding her and caring for her. Stopping whenever I need a rest. Noticing other people and flowers and blue skies and sunshine and dogs. Simply marveling at the world.
THIS it seems, is life. And ever-so-slowly I am beginning to understand that contentment is simply our best attempt at the beautiful ordinary living of it.
It is perfectly okay to admit this change is hard on my momma heart. It’s okay that it feels necessary to grieve.
None of it feels shiny! And it certainly isn’t perfect, but it IS beautiful.
That little boy you always knew is right there…and somehow this beautiful new person is emerging too.
To me, that’s where we really LIVE this lovely little thing called life.
It definitely isn’t glamorous, and I will probably spend the entirety of most days wondering if I am doing anything right. Nonetheless, I am delighted by my life.
You are loved and adored. You are valuable and worthy. Simply because you are YOU…and you are HIS.
Me. Family. Good friends. Connection. Real food. Nature. Pets. Comfortable footwear. Fresh baked bread. Long walks around the path behind my house. My tattered bible while soaking in a warm tub before bed.
Homes are not meant for tricking people into believing you have money or have it all together or you’re perfect, somehow, by being big and fabulous and stylish and organized and well-decorated.
I’m giving myself the time and grace and space to wonder. I’m giving myself some time to just…BE. And I’m calling it my Grace Period.
