The word “era” can be defined several different ways:

• In general history it can be a long stretch of time defined by a specific character or style, like the Victorian era or the digital age.
• In chronology it can be a fixed point or event from which time is counted, such as the Roman era or the pre-pandemic period.
• In geology it is usually a large division of geologic time that is split into smaller periods, like the Paleozoic era.
• And in pop culture it is often a phase in an artist’s career defined by a specific mood, interest, or style (e.g., being in a “villain [era]”).

In my own life, I have had many, many eras.

I got thinking about this because in a meeting the other day I found myself saying “I did once have a camping era…..” 

We’ve talked a bit in this space about our past and our identities and the value in feeling like ourselves. REALLY feeling like ourselves. 

But as I said that phrase about a past era of my own, I realized two (new) things.

1) I’m so grateful to her – that past camping self of mine that did things differently and taught me so much. I’m grateful she slept outside with her dog and looked at the stars and felt the bigness of the trees and the rivers and the sky. And I’m grateful she tried to sleep even as she listened to all those critters in the dark. She was so scared and so brave.

And 2) I’m not her anymore. And it’s ok. Today I’m still me. I’m just the me that sleeps in swanky hotels with doors firmly double locked. Today me is both less scared and less brave.

And it’s exactly as it should be.

Author Heidi Priebe in This Is Me Letting You Go said this:

“To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be. The people they’re too exhausted to be any longer. The people they don’t recognize inside themselves anymore. The people they grew out of, the people they never ended up growing into.

We so badly want the people we love to get their spark back when it burns out; to become speedily found when they are lost.

But it is not our job to hold anyone accountable to the people they used to be. It is our job to travel with them between each version and to honor what emerges along the way.”

Isn’t that so eloquently said? And the best news is that that goes for ourselves, too. 

It is our job to travel between each version and to honor what emerges along the way.

I can’t wait to hear about what you are honoring in this version of yourself – no matter where you’re sleeping. And if you need help letting things be exactly as they should be, I’m here to help. Really. Come join me in my coaching era.

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PS If you liked this post – or any others, I’d love you to pass me and my work on to a friend.  They can find out much more about me here if they’re interested!