Gratitude and Optimism

"Replacing my fear of death with the love of existence."

Optimism. Optimism defined as a sense of hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something. Optimism is highly regarded and recommended as a useful mindset.

However, how does optimism work if you’re unfixed and perhaps even unfixable?

To find out, watch the six-minute documentary trailer below and meet Kimberly Warner, my most recent Substack hero.

(Substack is the newsletter platform that is revolutionizing the publishing industry and the reason you can receive this letter in your email inbox.)

In 2015, Kimberly woke up to the “sensation of being at sea.” Permanently; a roiling feeling caused by a rare, neurological disease. However, this documentary is not about her disease; it’s about how to live life and love our broken parts.

“We all love fixer-upper stories, miracle cures and answers but many wake up each day without any of these. Our world needs more models for how to live a meaningful, unfixed life - a life liberated from fixed notions of how we must feel in order to live fully.” — Kimberly Warner

Our Western culture worships perfection; loves fixing things; even started the US experiment in democracy with the words, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union … “ 

However, nothing is perfect.

And, the search for perfection too often leads us into a life-negating quagmire where nothing is good enough because it doesn’t live up to our preconceived notions of perfection.

I’ve often wondered if my optimism would hold up under the circumstances that many people find themselves in. I am fortunate enough to still not know, but now I’ve seen role models of how to love life even when in a state of unfixed.

Thank you, Kimberly Warner. I am so grateful for your sharing this journey and introducing us to such amazing, inspiring people. I will never forget the comment of one of the unfixed toward the end this amazing trailer:

"Replacing my fear of death with the love of existence."

And, for any of you who want to know more, I highly recommend her Substack: Unfixed. You can read it for free and it just might change everything for you. Please leave a comment and share this amazing story with others.