I wish a different kind of success for you.

You may not always get the best grades in school, but maybe it’s because you’re trying to level out time spent studying and all of the other wonders life has to offer during those hours.

You may not grow up to be the most financially wealthy with the fanciest house or car, but maybe it’s because you prioritize your time to be a little less work and a little more people you love.

The kind of success I wish for you is the kind that can be seen externally by your actions–your smile, your aura, your helpfulness, your reaching hand, your willingness, the way you handle your life with grace, the way you trek through your struggles with certainty that there is, somewhere close, the other side.

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Sure, I hope you have the material things you desire. I hope you buy yourself that sweet new pair of sneakers. I hope you pay your bills with ease. I hope you treat yourself to that nice dinner but know that that’s not where we find happiness in this world.

Happiness comes from balance.

It comes from learning to love yourself when the world begins to teach you how not to. It comes from understanding others and accepting them for who they are, without holding them to the expectations of who you think they should be. It comes from lifting, supporting, and encouraging others, with the assurance that that won’t ever hinder your own growth.

It comes from holding onto the knowledge that everything will work out the way that it is meant to, and that the universe is working for us, not against us. What is meant to be yours, will be. Where you are meant to go, you will. It comes from enveloping yourself in the beauty of all the simplicity that God has given us, in a world of man-made complexity.

I wish you happiness, the kind that intrinsically reminds you every day that what you have and who you are is plenty, and to be intentional and patient when choosing your more. More does not always equate to greater peace or joy. Sometimes it indeed leads to less.

It was never about being the best or having the most.

It’s about balancing all you love and everything that matters to you in a way that offers you the freedom to know you are exactly where you are meant to be in your life when you are there and to breathe–breathe the purest, most reassuring breaths. And with each inhale of confidence, I hope you exhale the fear that it might not be okay. With each inhale of gratitude for your present moment, I hope you exhale your haste to get to the future and your anxieties of the past.

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You will have the tools to conquer all of your struggles, and I’m sure there will be a bunch of those. I hope you believe in you as much as I do, in fact, even more. I hope somehow you learn to believe in the power of you more than anyone else in this world.

As your mother, that is my vision of success for you.

I love you 

Originally published on the author’s blog