My parents and Todd at the Sphere
Hellooooo, you gritty sparkly soul!
This year, I’m giving thanks for the things I never would’ve chosen.
The heartbreaks that cracked me open.
The disappointments that redirected me.
The seasons that felt like they were breaking me down… but were actually breaking me open.
The moments of grit — sharp, uncomfortable, inconvenient — that eventually shaped something beautiful inside me.
It’s easy to be grateful for the good.
But the hard things?
The messy things?
The things you wish had never happened?
Those are the experiences that turn a life into a story — you into a pearl.
Here’s why.
The pearl is only created through friction.
Through irritation.
Through pressure.
Through grit.
And in a very real way, the hardest things we’ve lived through have made us who we were meant to be.
But I also want to say this…
If you’re still in the grit, that’s okay.
You don’t have to rush to gratitude.
You don’t have to pretend it’s all a gift yet.
You don’t have to bypass your pain before you’re ready.
The pearl doesn’t appear overnight.
There is a sacred, slow, uncomfortable process — and you can’t skip it.
You aren’t supposed to.
If you’re still inside that process — I honor you.
If you’re holding pain you don’t yet understand — I’m with you.
If you’re not ready to be grateful for the hard things — you don’t have to be.
Gratitude is not the starting point. It is something that grows quietly over time, often long after the storm has passed.
And sometimes the most honest form of gratitude we can offer is simply this:
“Thank you for shaping me… even if I don’t feel like a sparkly pearl yet.”
This Thanksgiving, may you honor both:
The pearl you already are
and
the grit that’s still working its magic inside you.
Both are sacred.
Both are part of your becoming.
Both are pieces of your imperfectly perfect story.
I’m grateful for you — your grit and your pearl.
Shuck with love,
Jessica