purpose – Sarah Faith

why you have to do the thing

no one likes to be told what to do, but i’m telling you… you have to do the thing.

you know… that thing that won’t leave you alone. that thing that when you think about doing it, you get all sweaty and light up a little but then tell yourself all the 100 made up reasons in your head that you can’t do it, shouldn’t do it, everyone will make fun of you for it, etc.

i can rattle off all of these because i’ve said them to myself hundreds of times… but the fact still remains… you have to do the thing. because it’s not going to just magically leave you alone. it’s going to keep annoying the crap out of you until you get over the fear and take the leap.

here’s the thing you don’t understand about it… you don’t have to know why. you don’t have to know where it’s going. you don’t have to know what it looks like. you have to trust that the Author of this whole thing knows better than you do… but He can’t steer a parked car. so what you’re gonna have to first is move…

it doesn’t have to look good. it doesn’t have to be perfect. you don’t have to be ready. none of those things are qualifications for moving… you simply need to move.

do the thing. do it messy. scared. fearful. confused. doubts intact. feeling like you’re not good enough or cool enough or smart enough… whatever. your action will put all of those lies to bed. because this thing has been pestering you for so long, there are things that are bursting at the seams to happen…. waiting for you to just do one simple stupid little movement. then all the next steps can finally start falling into place… i bet they won’t wait long. they’re tired of waiting on you.

i do this with music still sometimes. i do this with my business. social media. whatever. i’ll be dreaming of something in a very “wouldn’t that be cool” kind of way, but before i can even get the good thoughts out of my brain, here comes Mrs Doubt throwing fire all over my dreams, convincing me to turn around and not take the action.

then i try to convince myself that i don’t know what to do. Chief Lie of All The Lies, right there. i always at least know of one small thing that i can do that moves the needle. we’re not looking for home runs here… although i’m pretty good at convincing myself that it’s a home run or bust… that’s just my competitive nature. you just have to move the needle. you just have to breathe a little life on the thing and the next steps will almost take care of themselves.

last thing that’s required is patience… but still taking action while practicing patience. sometimes the waiting is the hardest part, just like Tom Petty always told us, but the last thing you actually want to do is sit on your hands in these moments. an object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest. if you had momentum going a little, don’t kill it. it took you long enough to move in the first place. don’t quit.

i’m telling you, even if the next action you see in your mind doesn’t seem to make sense, take it and find out. if it’s not 100 percent amazingly spot on, at least you’re still in motion and can pivot. isn’t it easier to turn something that’s already moving than something that’s completely sitting still? haven’t we been over this…?

anyway… these were just some quick thoughts i wanted to jot down and hit “send” before i forgot about them. i’m not ever writing these things with extra status of having figured anything out. these are always things i’m learning too. same as you. i’m just typing it instead of keeping it in my brain.

hope you’re having the best day, week, and month you could possibly be having.

♥, SF

things i wish more people knew

i had this thought this week and knew i needed to write about it. then i forgot, it slipped my mind, we went on a road trip, came back, it never resurfaced…. until just now when i sat down to write this.

immediately, the thought resurfaced – that’s how i know it’s the right one. that’s how i know it deserves a spot on the blog.

there are so. many. things. i wish more people knew. i could likely write another 100-page thesis about this topic. not because i’m a genius… but because there have been so many things that i’ve learned the hard way, i’d like to save someone from that if i could. too many people ask me how i’m so brave, where my thoughts come from, how i’m so “wise,” and it makes me sad because i don’t have access to anything you don’t. i just knew things needed to change if my life was going to. i couldn’t keep living in the shade and shadows of victimhood that the cards of my life kept trying to deal me.

so here we go:

i wish more people knew it’s ok to be wrong. it’s ok to screw it up. it’s ok to get it completely upside down, sideways, unrecognizable… because you can always fix it. you can always right the wrong. you can do it wrong a bunch of times and keep learning about all these different ways to do it almost right. eventually you will get it right. people don’t generally stay wrong forever. that would be more like the definition of insanity. you’re naturally going to improve. you’re naturally going to get closer and closer to the right place and you will eventually land in the right place. you’ll be more well-rounded the more risks you take and the more “wrongs” you rack up… if you’re convinced that’s what they need to be called.

i wish more people knew that there’s no benefit in life to taking yourself so seriously. no one gets an added bonus or any special perks for having less fun or being more stuffy. it’s not that serious. i guarantee it, no matter what “it” is. it’s a harder path living like it’s all gotta fit in between the lines, so you owe it to yourself and the days you’re subtracting from the end of your life to loosen up a bit. you can’t add days to your life by worrying more – the Bible even says so.

i wish more people knew that comparison is the absolute thief of joy. all the time wasted with your head on the swivel is time that could’ve been spent focusing on your own path, your own skills, your own strengths – there’s no way to get better at your own zone of genius by wishing you had someone else’s. anyway, it’s theirs. head on the swivel may be good in a war situation, but it’s not helpful when you’re battling between your ears, trying to create some momentum for yourself on in uncharted waters.

i wish more people knew that rest is, indeed, productive. it’s hard enough to get it all done as it is, much less with half a tank of gas in the tank. i’d say maybe women feel this more, but i’m not sure that’s true. i think men probably believe in the lack of rest just as much as the next human does. there’s no special badge you get to wear for being the most worn or burned out, either, so it would do us all some good to just hang it up every now and then. once a week really isn’t too much to ask. give yourself a day to recharge. honestly, there should be some rest time daily… and that five hours of sleep you’ve been surviving on does NOT count as rest. that’s a sad excuse for a night of sleep, is what that is. you’re killing yourself.

i wish more people knew that precisely NO BODY has it all figured out… but guess what… everything is figure out-able. you CAN figure it out, even if you’re not there right now. you’re not stuck. you’re not a tree. you can move. also… the perfect time doesn’t exist. being “ready” for whatever that next move is doesn’t either. social media is a liar. every person you see whose life looks “perfect” and “aesthetic” is lying if they don’t also show up on the crappy days. a good aesthetic is not reality. i think we live under this illusion sometimes that people are further along because they had some kind of golden knowledge that we don’t have and can’t get. not true. couldn’t be further from the truth. they just had the ability, whether it was guts or reckless abandon, to throw caution to the wind and move scared.

so do it anyway. because if you don’t, someone else will. those you’re watching take the action are doing it scared, myself included. wanna know who gave me permission to start writing in this blog? no one. wanna know how many people i’m “more qualified” than to write these things? precisely zero. but i had an idea, and i went with it and i’m still just going with it.

if you needed permission, here it is. take it from me. i’m not qualified to give it, but you’re not qualified to just sit on your butt and not take action towards those things you really really wish you could start or figure out or whatever other excuse you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t have or do what you want. we live in a weird time, but it’s also a blessed time of opportunity where you can basically create a reality if you don’t like the one in which you’re currently existing.

it’s time. it’s been time. it’s past time. you know it. i know it. we both know it. so. here’s the five things i think you should know and now you know them, so you can get moving on that thing now.

i can’t wait to see how big, bold, beautiful, and amazing it is.

♥,
SF

our wedding story

once upon a time, a boy messaged a girl on Instagram about songwriter’s rounds in Nashville, she responded, and now we’re here…

OBVIOUSLY that’s extremely abbreviated, so lemme give you a few more details…

when Matthew had proposed in February (the day AFTER Valentine’s Day because ON Valentine’s Day would’ve been too cheesy, and he didn’t want to be cheesy), we knew we didn’t really want a long engagement. there were a couple reasons for this:
• Matthew would melt in a mid-summer occasion
• we’ve been talking about marriage basically since day one so why wait?
• we like to make things interesting…

so we decided to look at the calendar, skirt around baseball tournaments if at all possible, and make a choice.

i’ll admit, i did have a little bit of thought on the date because the day we started this whole thing was 12.1.21 and i think that’s kinda neat. so i thought 4.27.24 would be a cool wedding date / anniversary… never mind that it would mean planning a wedding in about 70ish days…. i left that part up to Jesus because an April wedding sounded good to us. and we sent up a double prayer for weather.

venue wise, we didn’t really have a clue where to start. we had considered somewhere local, but didn’t necessarily know of anything too picturesque, didn’t wanna spend $10K, and didn’t need anything too fancy… we’re super simple people and we wanted our wedding to reflect that.

in Tennessee, there are soooo many beautiful places, but lots of them are 3-4 hours away from where we live. that didn’t sound all that appealing… so i started looking for mountain-esque things which led me down a path toward a place called The Leeric Lodge… the views on this place… holyyyyyyy moly… and it wasn’t 4 hours away. i had no reason to believe they would have our date available on such short notice, but when i found out they did, i was pretty dang excited. we needed to work a few details out with them based on our tiny ceremony, but it all ended up getting sorted – than you, Jesus!

we stayed in an AirBnb not far from the venue with EVERYONE in the same house – Matthew and me, his parents and step parents, his sister + brother-in-law with their brand new baby, my parents, and our kids. it was DEFINITELY a house full and required some air mattresses, but it was honestly the best time, and i couldn’t have imagined a more perfect arrangement.

after the wedding, (for which we were granted absolutely PERFECT weather!!!), we opted for a family dinner in town before spending our last night in the AirBnb before loading everyone up in the morning and heading back home to Clarksville.

we decided to have our reception the following day, Sunday, at The Amsterdam Local where all our friends would be able to celebrate with us. We had a whole Table -Sized charcuterie spread, the most beautiful cake, mini bundt cakes, macarons, and lotssss of community. just really simple.

there were definitely a lot of hands-on details for this whole thing, but honestly, i don’t think we could have dreamed it any better. the biggest takeaways for the whole weekend is we are: 1) grateful for every single human that came to celebrate with us 2) unbelievably grateful for the weather and 3) sooo glad we kept it soooooo simple.

being a part of this family is such a blessing, and there’s no way to create a wedding day that encapsulates all the blessings this marriage will grow into and bring us in the years and years to come. so if there was any advice to give to anyone in a similar situation, i’d definitely say: keep your ceremony to the Absolute Must-Have VIP people, invite your close-to-the-vest circle to your reception, do it all really small and beautiful, and allow yourselves to really celebrate what God is going in the midst of the whole thing. don’t get too caught up in the details of one specific day because at the end of the day, you’re still going to be married. the details will be nothing but things you spent money on to a certain extent. make it count.

HUGE Thank You to:
– Leeric Lodge
– “The Hoot” AirBnb in Silver Point
– BHLDN Bridal (dress)
– Alterations by Hanna (amazziinnggg)
– Briggs Clothiers (custom suit)
– The Amsterdam Local ♥
– Kristen Paige Photography (THANK YOU!!!!!)
– Ellie Beans Cakes (yummmmm)
– Thistle Sweets
– Nothing Bundt Cakes
– Snap Dragon Wagon!!! (Jen…. don’t even get me started)
– Jesus for thinking putting us together was a good idea
– our families for driving all over the country for us
– our friends for loving us, supporting us, and celebrating with us

“‘Til the End, Forever + Again” ♥

what even is “too much?”

Firing this thing back up. Look out.

I’ve had this thought rolling around in my head lately – “what is ‘too much,’ anyway?”

It’s something i’ve been told many times in my life. It’s something i’ve felt for most of my life. And i’m still not quite sure i know really what it means. And here’s why.

Would we look at a child and say the things they’re interested in are “too much?” would we look them dead in the face when they told us what they wanted to be when they grew up (even if the answer was different from week to week), and tell them “yea, you can’t do that.” i would hope not. So why do we do it to each other (and ourselves) now that we’re grown? Does that really serve us?

I’m coming at this thought after being in my backyard scooping horse crap, as i often do… and thinking to myself, “how on earth does a girl get involved in so many things… and what sense does it make?” my guitar-playing, song-writing, shampoo-selling, clean beauty-caring, bonus-moming, relationship-doing, animal-owning self barely makes sense to myself sometimes, but why is that too much? Why do i feel the urge to make sense of it? Is it not ok to just be as i am?

Why do i worry when i’m making something for our beloved social media, whether or not it’s going to make sense to someone else or whether or not it’s “on brand” enough? Why do i worry and why do i care? And i’m positive i’m not the only one who struggles with this.

We’re in a world where we have to make sense to others, and that’s a problem to me. The only person i really wanna make sure i make sense to is myself and the One that created me. And what kind of daughter would i be if i looked my Father in the eye and said “i think you made me too much… i think i like too many things, and i really think i should tone it down… mostly because of what other people think and say.”

That sounds especially ridiculous when typed out in black and white.

If the fact that i pursue songwriting as a career but also have a passion for clean beauty but also love animals and have a bunch of them (including three farm animals in a subdivision) but also am a bonus mom and also love Jesus and also am pretty vulnerable and about the things that i’ve been through in my life and also have a great relationship to top it all off is too much, well, i guess, as politely as possible…. Go find less…?

Sure, it’s a lot to juggle sometimes, but if i’m being honest, i wouldn’t trade it. And if there’s anything in that list that i’d look at and say, “yea, that’s not worth the time it’s taking up in my life. Not worth the space…” then i guess i’ll cut it. But for now, there’s nothing in there i’d like to go without.

What made us so concerned with the portrayal of ourselves we put out into the world, anyway? Why do we even have this “instagram vs. reality” thing? Why do we spend so much time curating, perfecting, beautifying? And who says it has to be so unilateral? Or else it might “confuse” people… and you “can’t be successful” if you’re too confusing… if it’s wrong to have a rich life full of many beautiful things, then screw it, i don’t wanna be right. And that’s my final answer.

Last time i checked, no one got mad at Instagram for starting off as a photo-sharing platform and now being a full blown video editing software. No one is upset that TikTok started out as a place where dancing videos were your ticket to fame but now it’s a glorified child of Amazon. We just go along with it and figure it out, glitches and all (am i right??). Things ebb and flow and change all the dang time. Things start out as one thing and morph into another, they add, they progress, they diversify. So why are we so reluctant, even scared, to do that for ourselves? Why is it seen as a weakness to be interested, involved, or good at “too many” things?

Frankly, I’m over it. I’ve wrestled with the thought too many times for too long. I’ve wasted too many minutes trying to figure out how to present myself in a way that makes sense to y’all. So here it is in a nutshell. For today anyway. Until i add or subtract something.

Hello, i’m Sarah. I’m a musician, mainly songwriter and guitar player, and i write songs about my life – both the wins and the losses. Because of this journey i’ve been on, I care a little extra about my health, both mental and physical, and i think there’s a lot we can do for ourselves in those departments to make sure we’re setting ourselves up for success. I’m a big fan of my family, a lot of my family has fur and four legs, but i’m especially grateful for the humans. I’ve got a relationship that’s much more than i deserve and two (bonus) kids i never thought i’d have.

Yep, it’s a lot. But it’s a lot to be grateful for. I guess it’s a little like my liberal arts education…. Well-rounded.

photo credit: the incomparable Alisa Thayne <3