Between Grounded and Alive
June was an exhausting month.
It was full of joy, adventure, sleepless nights, long work weeks, difficult conversations, celebrations—and, as always, a return to self that reminded me how important it is to meet ourselves with grace, patience, and forgiveness.
A few months ago, I wrote about being grounded in Between Hero and Grounded. As I reflected on the past month and searched for words, I found myself returning to the poem that accompanied it.
Grounded
Strength reverberating—
above the porous
remembrance
of treads
and foundation.
Seeping into versions
of growth,
anchored in being
while offering
gestures—
from the heart.
Quietly trusting admiration,
still acknowledging
the awe,
present with the rumble—
while still standing
tall.
This time, I didn’t read it as someone discovering the hero and the human in all of us, or realizing that how we show up matters.
I read it from a place of living it.
It was no longer about carrying things well or standing tall despite the weight. It was about acknowledging that joy and exhaustion, celebration and grief, confidence and uncertainty can all exist at the same time—and allowing them to.
The words hadn’t changed.
I had.
With that realization, I found myself leaning into the things that remind me I am alive.
Travel invited me into curiosity. Theatre awakened wonder. Yoga gave my body permission to restore. Shared meals became moments of connection instead of routine. I met new people whose stories expanded my own. There was laughter that arrived unexpectedly, celebrations that deserved to be honored, new recipes that reminded me creativity isn’t confined to the studio, glasses of wine that slowed the evening, an art exhibition that affirmed why I continue to create, and a poetry reading that reminded me words can still find us exactly where we are.
None of these experiences erased the exhaustion.
They helped me remember myself within it.
Groundedness isn’t about remaining unmoved. It’s about remaining yourself while everything else moves around you.
Somewhere between grounded and alive, we find ourselves again.
— James Allen, 2026