The Art of Staying Put

Why running isn't the answer

Merry Christmas, darlings. It’s all glitter and lights today. But I love the way snowflakes land uneven, how my ugly neon lights flicker, the ornaments hanging lopsided.

May we unwrap a little bit of joy, love, and deep breaths beneath the twinkling!

The urge to bolt often mutters tempting little lies.
A cheeky sprite urging me to sing adios to adulthood’s commotion. At 25, as I’m piecing together a career and polishing my people skills, I often ask: why do I conjure the desire to run rather than being in favor of this glorious upside-down world? Well, “glorious” might be a stretch.

Life’s challenges play hide-and-seek with me. When things get awkward or heavy, visions of vanishing to a sunlit beach or a snug, off-grid cabin pop into my head, like butterflies. I toy with the idea of an off-the-grid lodge in the mountains—a place where I could “find myself” amid forest silence. But life buzzes like an annoying fly, reminding me my dreams won’t build themselves. Staying put, here, now, means facing the awkwardness of real life every day and the realities of networking events, where my voice stumbles out in soft sounds and I fumble like a toddler taking first steps. I swear I’m talking, but my words fall soft, almost mute. There’s nothing romantic about this skill—it’s just something I’ve got to work on.

It’s a theme as old as time—the itch to flee when life gets jumbled up. Even some of the wisest minds had the urge to bolt. In Walden, Thoreau left the daily grind to live in a cabin in the woods, seeking simplicity and solitude to “live deliberately.” He wasn’t escaping, per se, but rather opting for a slowed-down life—a controlled way of avoiding the very grind that often fuels our urge to run. Thoreau's experiment was a retreat, sure, but a deliberate one.

Meanwhile, Virginia Woolf saw the value in "a room of one’s own" to escape the demands of society and create freely. It’s a form of running, but toward self-preservation, toward sanity. Woolf understood that sometimes it’s only in solitude we find clarity and that the chaos we face isn’t always external but something within us, asking to be understood, faced, and resolved.

Learning to Stay

Choosing to stay means resisting the shortcut. It’s about trusting that the discomfort, the bumbling social exchanges, and the awkward growth phases are all necessary.

What’s something in your life that you’ve been tempted to escape from, but decided to stay and face instead? How did it shape you?

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Feel Good Posts I Read This Week

• My Father Says I Can Go Out With You by

  Don Boivin
  who writes Shy Guy Meets The Buddha

• It Gets Dark Around 3 p.m by

  emma
  who writes Heart to Hearts

• Cranberries and Popcorn by

  Sarah Bessey
  who writes Sarah Bessey’s Field Notes

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my journal is a time machine. a map of who i’m becoming.

Thank you so much for sweet comments, dms, and all your contributions! I know that making consistent financial commitments can be challenging. If you prefer, a one-time tip in appreciation of my work is also helpful—an iced macchiato would really hit the spot!