Removing a Word from My Vocabulary

I’ve been working on removing a word from my vocabulary.

And no, It’s not what you think. It’s not a “bad word” or a “stupid word” or even a useless word. I just believe it doesn’t encompass the sophisticated beauty that is synchronicity in life.

Perhaps you’ve guessed the word? It’s “BUT.”

I used to find myself consistently gravitating to this word. For Instance, I once would have said, “I’m an actor, BUT I haven’t worked recently.” As if my art required the qualification of booking work to validate my worthiness as an artist. OR “I love myself, BUT I am unhappy with (fill in the blank).” So, therefore I cut myself off from my worthiness to give self-love simply because I’m interested in shifting my life in some way.

Now, I’m not saying there is no place for it; I am merely arguing this point: Life is more than two choices, two options, two sides.

Life lacks duality in general. It’s rarely one or the other. I firmly believe it’s almost always, “AND.”

You can love yourself AND want to change or grow.
You can be a brilliant artist AND have periods where you don’t work.
You can be joyful AND struggling with depression.
You can be an extrovert AND crave renewal inside solitude.
You can be heartbroken AND experience pleasure.

To use BUT only does a disservice to all that you are given. We are complex beings with equally complex experiences, and to distill life down to a series of conflicting or contradictions means you miss out on all the possibilities that live outside that binary. You limit your joy because you place an unnecessary modifier upon it.

Look for the opportunities of synchronicity, the great multiplier where new, creative worlds exist to hold you up inside the seeming paradox of life.⠀

Hold space for the “AND.”