encouragement that stays

Aug 21

Dear Reader,

By the time we recognize the need for support, we’ve usually been in the work for a while. We’ve already been trying to stay with the thing we care about, and to keep going even when we are unsure of the outcome. Most of that effort happens internally. Often, no one else sees what it costs us.

What we find ourselves needing in those moments is not advice or a solution. What’s missing is encouragement. Not the loud, performative kind, but something smaller and more durable. A way of remembering that the effort still matters, even if it’s become hard to name what it’s leading toward.

But encouragement, when it’s honest, helps us stay connected to the truth that effort and struggle often live side by side. Encouragement doesn’t erase the difficulty or explain it away. It says, this is hard, and you’re doing it. It reminds us that we’re still in it, and that staying in it is its own kind of integrity.

We may not always hear those words from someone else. And that absence can feel painful, especially when we long for it from those closest to us like a parent, a partner, a friend. We can’t make others understand what we’re carrying. We can’t control whether they notice, or respond in the way we hope.

But we do have a say in how we meet ourselves in that space. Encouragement offered inward, with honesty and care, becomes a form of strength that no one else has to give us. And when we begin to trust that voice, even just a little, it becomes easier to keep going.

Yours in the journey,