Leah Marke

My BEST Life

Today is January 25th, 2021 at 6 o’clock in the morning. It’s still dark out and as I sit here in bed, eyes closed, I can feel a stirring whirlwind inside my chest. It doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t feel bad. It feels unknown...or maybe undecided. It’s an unsettled wind that was turned up by the hurricane of events that was 2020: a mixture of chaos, anger, and loss. A breakdown of life as we know it, leaving pieces scattered about. Over the past year I have been feeling disconnected, moody, and heavy. And when I look at all those pieces scattered about, I am acutely aware that whatever my life previously was, it wasn’t what I truly want, or need. It’s too busy, too messy, and too bogged down with STUFF. I’ve been SPENDING too much, EATING too much, and WASTING too much. All this time, money, and energy spent with little to show for it that I actually VALUE. But in these early days of 2021, there is a sense that, in some ways, a storm has settled. And as I take an internal survey, I can feel that in between the cracks and rough edges lies the answer: the little pieces of GOOD laying around. The little pieces of what I value and hold dear: my FAMILY and FRIENDS, my HEALTH, my love of NATURE and respect for the ENVIRONMENT, my CREATIVITY, my GARDEN. This is MY potential. This is my compass. This is my way forward in 2021. With this new air of possibility, I’m not going to rebuild my OLD life. I’m going to identify the most important pieces of myself and stitch them together to form my BEST life. A life where my day to day has PURPOSE and most of my steps are leading me towards the life I WANT to lead.