I flipped on the light on my nightstand, one that had stayed unused for the past six months and curled up in bed next to Drew with the newest issue of Darling magazine. I had only quickly skimmed the articles and it sadly collected dust on my dining room table while I finished wedding season and I silently vowed that I would make time to actually read it. Drew quickly fell asleep next to me and I sat for a few minutes thinking about my new found freedom now that wedding season was coming to a close and wondered when it would actually sink in. I picked up the book and paged through the gorgeous pictures and beautiful typography. I started at the beginning and found myself wishing I had a highlighter for words that were so resounding to where I was in that very moment.

As I was about to call it a night I landed on an article titled “Stay in Your Lane.” It was written by previous Real Housewife, Lydia McLaughlin and it held a few nuggets of wisdom that I need to put out in the universe. The article was all about comparison and the slippery slope of constantly measuring our lives next to others. It’s something we all struggle with and something I catch myself doing on the daily. With our hyper-social world, it’s easy to stare at perfectly crafted images of lattes and girls nights, gorgeous outfits and perfectly dressed kids,  and it’s even easier to confuse your dreams with someone else’s. I get it, this isn’t a new message or something that hasn’t been talked about before, in fact, it’s something that we could preach about daily because the struggle is real and the comparison game is one we all play from time to time. Why do I feel bad about myself when I see a girl perfectly dressed? Why do I even care if people’s kids are in perfect matching outfits? Why do I feel guilt when I see someone’s perfectly chopped salad and see my bowl of macaroni and cheese (shapes, of course?) Why does my heart hurt when others book dream weddings in mountains or on beaches? Why, why, why do I compare myself to the things I intentionally expose myself to on a daily basis?

Stay in your lane, pave your own path, chase your own dreams. Your life isn’t better or worse because you spend it in yoga pants instead of leopard print pumps and your latte doesn’t taste worse if the foam isn’t in the shape of a heart. You don’t have to have a milestone every day, just living and appreciating the act of being alive is more than enough. Recognizing where you are headed and that the path may deviate is more important than dwelling on the fact that it isn’t paved with the same concrete as the next blogger/photographer/human being. Sometimes we are so worried about writing our own perfect stories that we forget to let God’s story for us unfold, we forget that the master planner is behind us and cheering us on. Remember what matters is at the core of your being, the center of your heart. We all need the reminder to stick to our path to follow the dreams you’ve been dreaming and not the ones that others are chasing. Just because our dreams look different, neither one is less worthy or valid. Let’s stop glorifying busy, stop letting comparison steal our joy, and just live the life we were made to… and for goodness sake, let’s be kind. We aren’t enemies, we are in this together! None of us will come out alive, so let’s just be nice and generous and cheer one another on, okay? Your life is simply yours and the time you spend wishing it was something else is time you’ve wasted on reaching your own potential. Life is too short to get caught up in all of it, to lust after what isn’t ours, and wish things were different, let’s make a vow to stay in our own lanes, run our own races, and chase dreams side by side, shall we?

Check out: Darling Magazine 

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Keep the journey going, click a link below to enjoy:

• Alex + Erin – Abbey Resort Wedding
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• Cody + Jamie – Little Farmer Anniversary Session
• Confessions of a Workaholic