an invitation to a social project

There's this vision that I have of a movement of humans all across the world making a choice that is truly transformational in the way they do and experience life.

People all over the world are tired and worn out in life. 

Drug use is at record levels, both prescriptions and otherwise, by people of all types and classes. It's also evidenced in the profound use of alcohol, especially the go-to wine in the evening after the day and often even in the day that has become a socially acceptable answer to everything from celebration to struggles.

And then there's the depression and emotional taxation of life that has wearied and burdened people to the point of not knowing what other choices they have and how they can possibly even get out of bed.

Parents are avoiding confrontation with their kids because the conversations are always so tough and life always feels so hard. Young people are feeling lonely and as though they've been abandoned by their own family, left by themselves to sort out their confusion and fear of what they see happening all around them by themselves, and coming to the point of feeling like life isn't worth it. Parents often don't even know what their kids are doing, how late they're staying up, what they're eating, or most especially--how they are feeling.

People all over the world are too exhausted to be honest about the truth of how they feel. 

Make-up on and hair coloring is an expected social norm in an attempt to coverup the effects of life that may give signs of weakness. People are doing whatever it takes to present themselves as though they've got it all together.

To face the truth about feelings feels too uncomfortable.

To do the work of unearthing the thoughts that have burdened them feels too exhausting.

The mere idea that it is possible to live at rest makes a person's salivary glands go into overdrive and tingle at the back of their jaw. People are hungry for rest but have sensory overload even thinking about it.

          What if people all over the world decide to accept life as it is, instead of fighting it?

          What if people all over the world decide to accept their own selves as they are--
               instead of fighting their own truth and hiding and pretending?

          What if people all over the world decide to accept the gift of love--
               without trying to prove themselves as worthy?

          What if people all over the world decide to lay down their stories--
               of regret, hurt, disappointment, resentment, anxiousness, and fear?

          What if people all over the world decide to accept that they belong, as they are?

          What if people all over the world decide to accept each experience--
               trusting that all is meant to serve?

          What if people all over the world decide to accept each other's differences--
               seeing one another as a teacher?

          What if people all over the world decide to accept the storm--
               trusting that it is producing something beautiful, as brutal as it may feel? 

          What if people all over the world decide to accept life--as it is? 

          What if people all over the world decide to accept themselves--and live as they are? 

The vision that I have of this movement of people making a life-transforming choice is a social project called The C'est La Vie Project.

This project is a creative coming together of people forming communities that are so close they are like family. People actually dare to open up the tent flaps of their heart, inviting others inside--people who they know, and who they don't know; people like them, and people who are different. In this coming together, people share and then listen to each other's truth without judgment.

I imagine this project of being together in family feeling like being at home in which people kick their shoes off and put their feet up and sigh with relief that they can simply be, as they are.

C'est La Vie as I describe it is a truthful reflection of life as it is. It's an invitation to come and get to know the real one another in which love is shared, experienced, and known. It's a tool for connection--an answer to the hunger of wanting to be seen, known, and accepted.

The C'est La Vie Project is an invitation to share the unique ways we curate our life, as though we are living magazines--a dare to live sprawled out, as we are.

This, I imagine.