Have you ever had one of those experiences where something is recommended to you, time and again? It could be a piece of literary, a song, a movie or tv show, etc. Somehow the message keeps coming up that you should experience this work of creativity, yet for some reason or another you resist. Maybe you feel too busy to fully appreciate it, too crazed to seek it out. Whatever the reason, you don’t lean in to the thing.
Until one day, you do.
And in my experience, by the time I give in, I’m left with the same thought or feeling: “WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG?”
One of those in recent memory was the tv show “Parks and Recreation.” It’s an American TV show starring Amy Poehler as a public servant working in the parks department, trying to make a difference in her small town. I’d tried watching the first episode a couple times, but never caught my interest much after that. Yet people kept recommending it to me.
“You just got to get past the first season,” was the common thing I heard. “It’s only six episodes. Then you’ll love it!”
After avoiding it for who knows how long, I finally sat down and watched it. And you know what? I LOVED it. I would now list it in my top favorite shows. The characters are funny and relatable, and the life lessons are rampant throughout (in the best way possible).
In one of the final scenes, the main character (Leslie Knope) is giving a graduation speech.
“The best prize life has to offer is a chance to work hard at work worth doing,” Leslie says, quoting Theodore Roosevelt.
“And I would add that what makes work worth doing is getting to do it with people you love.
Find your team, and get to work.”
We talk about self discovery and self reflection a lot. How healing is something that can only be done when the person is ready. No one can do it for you. There are so many things in life that one has to choose to do, and in many cases do alone.
But that doesn’t mean you have to do everything that way.
Having a solid team behind you, beside you, makes the growth worth it. It’s easy to feel we are lost in a vacuum of solitude, but nothing is ever really solitary in this life. We are all inter-connected, and finding the right teammates can make the difference between success and failure, joy and just getting by.
I’ve experienced first hand the difference having a team can make. It makes you stronger, gives you someone to speak to. Combining your experiences can save some heartache and drama too!
A good team brings with it a combined set of strengths, experiences, and insights. It can help to process whatever you’re going through when you have the sense that someone else has experienced it too - or at the very least is there to hold your hand as you go through the fire. There’s accountability in a team - I know I’m not the only one who has experienced the shaky ground of motivation and waning dedication to a task at hand.
All that to say - while healing may feel like a solitary act, the more you can find your trusted team to lean on, the better and deeper the healing will go. So, as a wise room of writers once said:
“FIND YOUR TEAM. AND GET TO WORK.”
Cosmic Chord has sounding booking options for group sessions. Interested? Shoot me a message or leave a comment below.