Present Over Perfect

where the rest of the women were. And then Bryson yelled
after me, just as I was turning away, “Shauna! Hey, Shauna!
I thought you said we say yes! I thought you told me we
jump!”
And so I jumped. And so I said yes, and that word
became a shorthand between us, a symbol for being awake,
for being alive, for showing up, for jumping. We texted it
across the country to one another: “Are you saying yes?” “I
said yes today!” “Say yes, say yes, say yes.”
I bought a sweatshirt that said SAY YES in navy and
gold, and I wore it constantly, like a lucky charm, like a best
friend. A reminder of this sweet, wide-open way of living,
wholehearted, connected, wholly there. Words that hadn’t
described me for a long time, but words that I aspire to.
Saying yes means not hiding. It means being seen in all
your imperfections and insecurities. Saying yes is doing
scary things without a guarantee that they’ll go perfectly.
Saying yes is telling the truth even when it’s weird or sad or
impossibly messy. Saying yes is inviting chaos, and also
possibility. Saying yes is building a new future, regardless
of the past. Saying yes is jumping in anyway.
One part of this journey, of course, was learning to say
no. I couldn’t have remade my life without that very
important word. But it’s not the word that I want to be my
knee-jerk response to all of life. My response to pressure
and expectations: no. But the word I want to say to beauty
and freedom and soulfulness and life and play and creativity
and challenge and God’s wild and expansive love? Yes,