Milestones
how we orient ourselves along the way
*Throughout the summer I’ll be pulling the most popular/engaged posts from the archives and resharing them every other Saturday. This one was originally published September 27, 2024. Thank you for continuing to follow along!
This past year has been full of milestones for me.
I became an entrepreneur.
I turned 50.
We renovated our basement to embrace intergenerational living.
And today I celebrate another milestone . . .
One year ago today I posted my first blog on Substack.
Have I ever mentioned that I’m a word nerd? Humor me as I follow this word trail.
The word “milestone” dates back to the ancient Roman world when large pillars were placed along the rugged roadside a thousand paces apart. These markers served as indicators of distance and to orient travelers along their journeys.
Milestones.
Our modern world has replaced stone pillars with reflective green signs, still marking the miles for us as we travel on the interstates, orienting us to how far we’ve traveled, how far we still have to go until we reach our destination.
Milestones aka mile markers.
As we journey through the days and years of our lives, we celebrate certain birthdays, experience momentous life events, or achieve significant goals — turning 21, learning to walk, graduating from high school or college — with particular fanfare.
Milestones.
It’s good to take notice of the milestones in our lives. As we recognize and celebrate these markers on our journeys, we honor the terrain we’ve traveled to get to this point, and we gather strength and inspiration to continue the climb.
I started this blog here on Substack as an experiment of sorts. No shortage of questions and doubts plagued me (and still do at times).
Is anyone actually going to read what I write?
Will I run out of things to say?
What if I fail?
But taking action in spite of these kinds of questions and doubts is a part of what it means to live wholehearted — jumping into the unknown to follow a call, taking a risk to pursue a passion, opening up my heart and life to inspire and invite others to embrace wholeheartedness.
“Offer yourself to the world — your energies, your gifts, your visions, your heart — with open-hearted generosity. But understand that when you live that way you will soon learn how little you know and how easy it is to fail.” ~ Parker Palmer
I started with just six subscribers, all of them manually added to my mailing list by yours truly. (In others words, they had no choice.) Over the past year, I’ve been floored by you who have actually chosen to opt in, following along week after week. Many of you have reached out along the way to express how a post resonated or challenged or encouraged you in your own pursuit to live wholehearted. Each comment spurs me on, emboldens me to keep putting words to page.
But beyond all of that, I reflect back on the past year’s blogging journey praising God for his faithfulness as I endeavor to be faithful to this call he’s put on me to write. Even when I sit down on a Thursday to a cursor blinking tauntingly on a stark white screen and I wonder if I still have something to say, the Spirit inspires me, infusing my mind with images and words to communicate that eventually spill onto and fill the page.
“We were built to count, as water is made to run downhill. We are placed in a specific context to count in ways no one else does. That is our destiny.” ~ Dallas Willard
With one year behind me, I look to the year ahead with wonder and anticipation of how our faithful God will use my faithful writing practice to pour out his goodness and kindness on each of us, to reveal himself in new ways.
So it is that I celebrate this one-year milestone with gratitude and awe for this life I’m learning to live wholehearted. I hope you’re learning to live that way too.
Until next time,
Kerry