Saying goodbye to the kitchen I designed with my ex-husband…the same kitchen where we celebrated birthdays and achievements, like my 365 days without yelling…the same kitchen where we stood and decided to end our marriage, where we decided to walk away from the dream we both so very much wanted, is turning out to be very, very hard. I am filled with both immense sadness and excitement. Life is both/and my friends.
I used to think it was black and white. I used to live in black and white, sometimes in gray. If there is one thing I’ve learned from my divorce, it’s the both/and. I’ve had to learn to hold space in the same hour for painful feelings and pleasurable ones. I’ve had to be an Orange Rhino day in and day out. I’ve had to really embrace that concept – that gray feelings are real and exist and need to be honored, and also that orange feelings, ones of warmth, positive energy, enthusiasm, ones that help us be present, be action oriented, be fulfilled, can exist too.
And the Orange feelings – they wrap the gray ones up with a big tight embrace so one can keep moving forward. Both/and Enthusiastic/Sad Orange/Gray And now I take my kiddos to school – literally using all the Orange energy I have to wrap up the gray with love so that I can be present with my kiddos and not snappy.
Sending my warmth to you, to go with your strength, today and always, especially if you too are working on wrapping up your gray this morning. Your gray is real. I see you.
xoxo, Sheila
🧡 The Orange Rhino
