The Forty Files

Love Letters Series A series of letters to people, things, places, ideas. If you are not romanticizing your life, start now.

Dear You, standing in the middle of it all,

February shows up like it has something to prove. It does not tiptoe. It arrives loud and layered and demanding receipts. Deadlines and dinners. Calendars bleeding into each other. Sports bags by the door. Birthdays circled in hearts. Renovation dust where peace used to live. Love everywhere and still so much pressure.

This is the season where adulthood really shows its face. Where you are wildly grateful and deeply overwhelmed at the exact same time. Where you want to complain but feel guilty even thinking it. Where your brain spins so fast you end up frozen, staring at the to do list like it personally wronged you.

If that is you, hi. You are not broken. You are just carrying a lot.

This letter is for the ones white knuckling a full life. For the people who prayed for this season and now feel crushed by it. For those who love their kids, their work, their homes, their partners and still need a minute alone in the car to breathe. For the ones who know this is a good life and are still so damn tired.

You are allowed to feel both.
Grateful and exhausted.
Lucky and overwhelmed.
In love with your life and desperate for a pause button.

This season is not asking you to be perfect. It is asking you to stay. To show up imperfectly. To romanticize the mess when you can and survive it when you cannot. To understand that paralysis is not laziness. It is your nervous system asking for gentleness.

So here is your permission slip.
Do less where you can.
Lower the bar without lowering your worth.
Let some balls drop. They were never all meant to be held at once.

One day you will miss this chaos. The car rides. The noise. The feeling of being needed everywhere. But right now you are allowed to say this is a lot and still be thankful.

February is your Olympics, sure. But you do not have to medal in every event. Sometimes just finishing the day is gold enough.

With so much love and zero judgment,
Here is to getting through the busy season one deep breath at a time 💛