Sami | Life After Religion

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I spent a lot of years thinking a good life was something you earned after you had done enough, accomplished enough, sacrificed enough, or finally gotten everything under control. Now I think building a beautiful life looks a lot more ordinary. It looks like making pupusas in your kitchen. Taking your kids for ice cream. Sitting in a lawn chair while they play. Going to the garden center because there’s a fall festival happening. Helping your daughter get ready for homecoming. Packing a picnic that is probably way more elaborate than necessary. Looking at a flower before the season changes and actually noticing that it’s there. None of these things are particularly impressive. That’s kind of the point. I don’t want to spend my life constantly waiting for the weekend, the vacation, the next milestone, or some imaginary future version of myself who finally has permission to enjoy being alive. I want a Tuesday afternoon to count too. I’m a mom of 8, a business owner, a wife, a person with responsibilities and laundry and schedules and a million things that need my attention. But somewhere along the way I realized that building a life I don’t want to escape from is mostly about learning to be present for the life that’s already happening. This week had family, food, flowers, art, sunshine, culture, teenagers growing up way too fast, and kids playing outside. Nothing extraordinary. And somehow, extraordinarily good. 🌸 #BuildABeautifulLife #MomOf8 #IntentionalLiving #SimpleJoy #SlowLiving

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It’s interesting to see when people speak up and when they stay silent.

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There is something SO disorienting about deconstructing religion and then realizing… most of the people around you still believe it. Because I can sit here completely confident in what I believe. I can look at the harm caused by organizing laws, families, gender roles, politics and entire lives around religious beliefs and think, how are we still doing this? And then I remember: I’m the minority. And sometimes that genuinely messes with my head. Because if I told you Santa was real, built my entire life around Santa, made rules for my children based on what Santa wanted, and then tried to make rules for your life based on Santa… we’d probably have some questions. 😂 But replace Santa with religion and suddenly questioning it is the radical position. I know belief is deeply personal, and I’m not interested in taking anyone’s private beliefs away from them. But when those beliefs start determining how other people are allowed to live? Yeah. I’m going to keep asking questions. Anyone else who has deconstructed ever have the “wait… am I the crazy one?” moment? #ReligiousDeconstruction #ExMormon #LifeAfterReligion #Deconstruction #SecularMom