{complete}

Drawn to.  Like some kinda magic spell, you find yourself settling your soul next to certain people and you really just can't explain why.  Perhaps it's a cross between "your kinda them" and "they're kinda you".  Either way, it matters not.  Energy and all things eclectic & snazzy fun just tend to happen while in their presence.  So much that they stick.  Like a massive suction cup of memories to your life.

Today's contributing is one of my suction cups. Gosh, I have loved this girl since I first met her.  And when I say love, I mean totally absolutely adore. She and I went to elementary school and junior high together with a partial bit of high school too.  She left the country for a teensy bit as her family moved to Panama.

I can tell you this woman's childhood home right down to the pictures that hung on the wall.  They had a massive loft overlooking their living room.  I can remember looking down on the art and the books and the charm of her dwelling space and thinking, "Oh, I just love this place!" One time her Dad returned to the states while they were living in Panama.  He made sure to stop by my house and video a message from me to his daughter to keep in touch.  I will never forget sitting on my screened-in-porch swing while he videoed my hello and update on how things were going in our tiny town.

I almost cracked a tooth on her trampoline.  And she was the first to teach me how to write my name in cursive in 2nd grade Brownies, there at the Estill Springs Community Center, I watched her loop-curve "Autumn" with such zest & swiftness on the back of my cardboard craft.  Instantly, I wanted that kinda pizazz in my person.  I still have the burlap felt craft with her name just as swift and zestful right next to mine on the back.

And her message today could not have been more appropriate for me to read.  Again, further proof, that she is my "they're kinda you".  So often I want to compartmentalize & complete.  I want to feel DONE and know OVER.  And, it is in the bounds of this finish-disease that we've all been infected that we lose touch of the good hope we so desperately seek.

She says it all so much better.  Have I mentioned I love this girl?  Because, gosh, I do.  Please welcome Autumn Chastain to the blog.

You complete me…

Admit it, you were either snort crying at that line or laughing at the cheese.  I dare venture most were crying.  What a wonderful concept that we can check the box.  The search is over.  Everything is complete. Sounds so tidy, but to imply completeness, we miss opportunities, chances, experiences, emotions, and growth.

Complete – Completely. Completed. Completing.

It may sound negative and might even scare those loved ones around me, but you don’t complete me; I cannot love you completely; our family is not completed.

Why?  I strive to be in a perpetual state of completing.  It keeps hope alive.  It keeps me working on me, developing me while being, doing, and loving in my marriage and for my family.  By definition, none of us should want to be complete.  My ventures are not done.  Each day brings a new challenge, a new adventure, a new accomplishment and that constant evolution is part of us completing.

Strange how the antonyms sound so dark: defective, deficient, lacking, missing, wanting, imperfect. We are human and imperfect.  We are missing some of the answers. We are lacking motivation sometimes.  We are, on occasion, left wanting in the behaviors of our children.  For these reasons, we cannot be complete, but what fun to be always working on these things.  What joy completing is as a process.

From daughter to wife to mother while student and friend and foe and lawyer, all are a part of me, but none complete me.  We all feel the pressure to check the box complete in various aspects of our life.

There is just something about seeing that naked square, but my wish is that you leave it unmarked, as uncomfortable as it seems.  I know, it makes me twitch, but that blank box, that unfinished list, it is the journey we are all completing.

Autumn Chastain is life & style. She is wife to a creative mastermind named Chris, owner of Khakiman Designs, and mother of 2 beautiful girls, Petrea & Soah. By profession, she is a lawyer.  Autumn is passionate about juvenile welfare.  She also enjoys training young people with a desire to study law in her involvement with the use of mock trials.  She speaks fluent Spanish, has a deep love for a good costume party almost as much as she does an auction and is head over heels infatuated with the sweet & savory smells from her very own landscaped gardens. She lives with her family in Memphis, TN.

To open all 31 gifts in this month long celebration, visit here.