They tore down my favorite house.

It sat at the end of a street. Perfectly positioned in my view when I turned the corner.

An end-of-the-street beacon that invited you in for a cup of coffee just by its mere looks and existence.

I constantly wondered about the stories that house held.

The memories it contained.

Whose sailboat was that in the window?

This house oozed character and charm and sparked curiosity and wonder.

Then, one day, it’s gone.

I’m sure to be replaced with some newer model. Judging by 99% of the new houses in our neighborhood, the look will be white rectangles on top of each other with black trim. Constructed by the incorrectly named “Blue Wave Construction.” Truer name: “White Box/Black Trim Construction.”

My uncle pointed out the water damage. The lack of upkeep. The cost of maintaining a house a stumble to the ocean.

I get it…but now that charm is going to be replaced with something without character or stories or a history.

I’m not opposed to new and forward movement and all of that stuff…but what’s wrong with keeping SOME of the old?

Must we constantly be upgrading? Optimizing? Maximizing?

Self-improving and personal developing ourselves beyond recognition?

What happens if we just…well…be.

I feel the presence and energy of that house missing on my walks now.
And I can’t help but think what if? What if they had maintained the house? They had invested into some weather proofing. Some waterproofing. Yeah it’s time it’s money it’s effort…

But the character would still be there.

The sturdiness.

The stories.

I think so much these days has us constantly in the push to move forward to learn to grow to seek when what if instead, we cared for the character we have now. Or even, the character we had back in the day before it got layered up with the latest makeup trend or fashion trend or protocol or influencer telling us how to be.

If we allowed our character to shine through.
What if we maintain what we’ve already got?

What if we spruced up and stepped into that bit, instead of reaching for being someone or something new?

Because what if what we’ve got is already all the character we need?

Imagine the space and the freedom we’d grant ourselves if we freed ourselves up from the constant work-in-progress nature of our world these days, and just maintained our character.

Let our character show itself.
Get a little noisy.
Get a little flashy.
Make itself known.
Show our story without even telling our story.
Like that house.

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I feel something missing when I walk down that street now.
It’s made me think about the times I’ve felt something missing when I’m not being all in on my “character.”

What my take is now–there’s no reason to bulldoze me down and smash me to smithereens.
(For one thing, I would not look good as white rectangles with black trim!)

My take now is to bring out my character, free up my character, go all in on my character, because that’s going to be the best way to maintain it.

My question for you is instead of thinking what you want to change, what parts of you do you want to keep? What parts of you speak without words and make people look forward to seeing you or being in your presence just because you’re YOU?

What would it be like to go all in on those sorts of things?

We need more of YOU. Not less of you or some cookie-cutter-version of a you that you think you need to be.

Care for your character–that’s the stuff that people are after.

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