Uplifting Somebody

   

     When I was listening to the songs that I was going to recommend today, I found this music video version of "All We Do" by Oh Wonder and it really made me think about the whole point of what we're doing here. As in, on this earth. And ultimately it comes down to this one quote: "Uplifting somebody...that's what the human life is supposed to be about. Uplifting somebody." It's so hard to do sometimes, especially when we can hardly uplift ourselves, and yet it's crucial. It makes life worth living. I've been working on a group project for my youth cultures class and this one girl is very difficult to work with and I keep complaining about her and bashing her, but honestly I think she's probably just in desperate need of uplifting. She's an ex-model and she's scarily skinny. She constantly tears other people down and I think it's her way of dealing with her own insecurities (probably many of them stemming from years of having her body criticized). Sometimes it's hard to have compassion for her (when she found out that I was from the "country" she gasped and asked if I had any friends) and yet that's probably what she most needs. She also is majorly stressing out about this project, and it probably stems from her desire for perfection, or to impress other people and she feels like if we "fail" this project it will reflect on her own image. So I have to take that into consideration and try to be understanding with her instead of judgy, which is my first instinct.
     Coincidentally, I've been doing this 28-day devotional and today it talked about relationships and how we often try to "fix" other people and how if we don't have other people supporting us and uplifting us, we'l become drained very quickly. We can only uplift so much if we're not uplifted by other people. The only reason why I have any capacity at all to love or uplift is because I am loved and uplifted daily. Today was definitely a reminder of everyone around me who is constantly loving and uplifting me. We had our first (and definitely not last!) Friendsgiving today at DS's house and it was beautiful and amazing and hilarious and ugh I'm so lucky. I have the best friends in the world and I don't know how I lucked out so much. As I was leaving, the song "Michigan" by the Milk Cartons Kids came on in my car and I was like "Ughhh, sadness." Literally the first lyrics to come on were "What am I supposed to do now,/Without you." I can't wait for Christmas. Sigh. I'm all full of delicious food and brotherly love...


Day 1096 Song Recommendation: "Alaska" by Maggie Rogers. This song is like a Shura/Oh Wonder combo.
Day 1097 Song Recommendation: "All We Do" by Oh Wonder.
Day 1098 Song Recommendation: "All We Know" by the Chainsmokers.

Other quotes of the day from the music video:
"You have to surrender and accept...accept where you are. Because when you accept where you are it's a lot easier to move forward."
"I think success is making the most number of people's lives better."

-SE Wagner