Every three months we’ve changed our place and our people. The movement is exhilarating. Throwing ourselves into the new and unknown keeps us awake and so alive to the world. We’re giving it everything we’ve got. We’re also riding just along the edge of exhaustion. This third time around, I’m definitely feeling a subtle bit of weariness crashing into my enthusiasm.

It can be rough – picking it all up after finding your feet. You get to a place of comfortable camaraderie just as you have to say goodbye, only to go learn a whole new place and a whole new people. In those tired moments, what can revitalize?

Owning it.

At first pass, these words seems to demand more energy from you. But as I’ve turned to them over the past weeks, a sense of lightness arrives. When I no-holds-barred own my place and my person, I lose the weight of novelty and greet the ability to be present. Owning it is making a decision to say yes to where you and who you are. Once that’s decided, I am free to just be in my new place with my new people.

Owning where I am puts me in a posture of learning. I can see the place more clearly. I become more adept at asking strong questions and considering possibilities. It’s easier to see other perspectives when you’re rooted. And to take it all in.

Owning who I am lets others know who I am. When I drop the doubts of being with new people, they don’t doubt my presence either. My ease puts them at ease. We can meet each other openly without the newness of it all being a burden. And we can both let ourselves be who we are.

Owning it means taking the reins and charging past fatigue into the sheer delight of being alive.