If You Show Up, Mean It

We live in a world where everything gets taken for granted.
Time. People. Presence.

Everyone wants more.
More attention. More hours.
More from people already giving their best.

And still—
the same complaints.
Not enough time.
Not enough effort.
Not enough care.

Maybe the lesson isn’t in what’s missing.
It’s in what’s already here.

Gratitude is seeing past yourself.
Long enough to notice—
most people are just trying.

Not everyone will match your energy.
That doesn’t make them less.
Doesn’t make you more.

It makes you different.

The mistake is pulling someone else’s energy
to feel taller.

Because when they walk past you—
quiet, steady, still rising—
you’ll realize what you lost
wasn’t them.
It was the version of you
that could’ve met them better.

So if you show up—
mean it.
Own it.
And be someone
you could live with
if it ended right there.

“Show up like it’s the last time you’ll get to.”

—Angela
The Voice beneath Daughter, Unwritten