earning our badges.

It has been a busy week, hence the lack of blogging. <– a disclaimer that y'all probably don't need. I'm embracing the fullness of it- the work, laughter, friends, hugs, challenges, positive words, atta girls, and the ahas. A full week, indeed.

In the Desire Map book club on Tuesday, part of the conversation centered around core parts of our identity and how we talk about who we are. On my drive home, I was thinking about those elements of our stories as badges that we've earned. I've been both a Girl Scout and a Girl Scout Leader, so I've earned quite a few badges by doing, and by facilitating. I don't think that I have my Brownie sash any longer, but I'm sure that there are several crafty badges, and maybe a few cooking badges. Pretty confident that there weren't any sports or nature badges. Just being honest!

I've earned dozens of badges since those Brownie Girl Scout days. Each badge has required attention, activity, and effort. I don't remember signing up for some – Accident Survivor, Worrier, Divorcee – but I know that they were hard-earned. I'm grouping those into a bigger Warrior badge. I've been working on others for years – Good Friend, Awesome Mom, Healthy Person. I'm not sure that I would have ever predicted that I'd earn the Pescetarian, Scrapbooker, or Mindfulness badges – but those have brought so much to my daily life. I'm hoping to work on my World Traveler badge more in the coming years, and I'd love to dust off the Yogini badge that I started pursuing pre-back pain. It's an interesting way to measure the areas that I put my attention…

Which badges are you working on?