Michael and I have made a lot of passionate and non-conformist decisions. We chose to change careers despite making a very comfortable salary at our jobs, we chose time off together to explore the world and get to know each other better, we’ve chosen to live debt free, we choose not to eat animal products, and we’ve chosen to live in the place most people dream of retiring in. But sometimes, I admit, it is hard to accept the consequences of all these choices. I am reminded every time we look at purchasing a house within our budget or when we miss being able to go out with our friends and eat whatever is on the menu.

In fact, a menu is the perfect metaphor. We sometimes get disoriented or feel behind in some socially acceptable life trajectory but really we are not even ordering from that menu. Almost nothing on the average American menu suits us (and it shouldn’t suit therapists but that is another post….). Our creativity, the drive of designing and implementing a private practice that shatters the status quo all comes from living from another menu. The hard part is that we are creating the menu as we go. There is no template or timeline to adhere to. We are continually faced with the decision to shape our menu from socially conditioned entitlement or from a place of deep gratitude that every day we wake up in a place we LOVE and go to work doing what we LOVE.

I choose love and gratitude today.