The Right Advice At The Wrong Time by Courteney Bird
This was a post that my little sister wrote for me. It’s been almost a year. It’s time to share it. xo, Brooke
Sometimes we are given the right advice at the wrong time.
Well maybe we are wrong at the time, for the right advice. This is not a story about that. This year was not easy and my need for words of wisdom and guidance was at an all time high. I had just gone to a female-led summit with my mom and sister. They are creatives and small business owners who brought me along to, as they put it, inspire me to also be a kick ass chick who builds the future she wants…
Even though I felt so motivated and directed in terms of my aspirations after, I still felt there was a lot of work to do in terms of who I was already. The other day I read something from last summer in my notebook.
“If things persist to make me feel the way I do, it’s time to let go. Life’s too short and there is all the love for me out in the world; doesn’t matter what, who, when, or where... it’s looking for me too.”
The graphite smile laying at the end of the note contradicted the pain and sadness that prompted it in the first place. For a while, I had been scared of being alone and felt attached to something that wasn’t good for me. The light I had once carried with me, about life, had dimmed for a short while. But, even then, I still had never really understood myself and hadn’t yet visualized anything else yet.
Here I was months later reading this letter by accident; initially feeling empathetic but then pretty damn proud. Like holy shit, did I never think when writing that, that I would have the strength to let go? It took too many months to write the note and too many months for myself to even listen to the words it said.
Lesson: The importance of documentation..
Also: Listen to your damn self.
Brooke gave me a book for Christmas last year called “Your Soul Is a River.” It is full of poems by Nikita Gill. I think she gave this to some of her friends, too.
A few days after, I read the whole thing in one sitting on my plane ride back to Charleston. There could have been no better timing for every one of her words. Nothing has ever so effortlessly drilled into my head the importance of loving yourself. Then, I had been feeling in pieces, broken hearted because I had never taken the time to be truly independent in my intentions and had enough times, avoided steps of self advocation, of which certainly resembled self love.
Nikita Gill doesn’t use or need a novel to tell you everything you need to know. Simply, beautifully, and unapologetically, she makes it clear. Advice requires the right time, I guess, but it really just takes the right mind. Maybe you don’t need to be in a similar or difficult situation to use the following quotes from her book, to change your perception of loneliness, love, and living itself; But I strongly recommend that no matter where you are or who you are, that you take these words to heart, be real with yourself and about how you live by their message. Document how you feel and what you want to do. Make the changes. Let go of the things that need to be let go. K?
“When every part of you
Aches with loneliness
Seek no one else.
Now is the time to seek yourself.”
Pg. 148
