spicy hot bag of chitos

the ever beautiful and brilliant Leslie over at With Glittering Eyes deeply touched my heart with her honest and direct response to my post titled His and Hers. Leslie writes with such glitter and finely chopped red chilis, it was such an honor and a delight to have this sister on my side and encourage me in her colorful zesty way. i wanted to share her little letter because it humbles me as well as encourages me that my heart's intent was not misunderstood for once..:)


"Oh Jana! I am so annoyed that someone would misinterpret your posts and then have the nerve to tell you their misinterpretation! I mean honestly Jana, you have been SO clear in your posting that "hey, this is my photo journal. Please don't follow if you don't want to.". I mean... SO STINKING CLEAR. and you always speak with vulnerability, transparency, positivity... and because I seriously have no idea who said this to you I feel a certain level of freedom to say BULL. I mean really. Bulllllllll crap. You are so obviously not doing that. So very clearly. Also because I can hardly imagine anyone thinking that about your posts in the first place, I would like to encourage you by saying I highly HIGHLY doubt anyone else is thinking those same thoughts when you post things. 

Sorry for all of the caps lock action on this comment. I just struggle with the freedom to post stuff sometimes too and I am frustrated that your sense of freedom on Instagram was taken from you in a small way once again. I love your posts. I love how honest and transparent you are. You are not misunderstood. Your heart is so very clear on your intention for social media usage. 

Also I am very tired and waiting to take some sheets out of the dryer so I hope none of this comes across as hostile I just don't want to give you a fluffy response I want you to know that there are people who you don't even know very well who can see very very obviously the intent of your heart. IT IS SO OBVIOUS you aren't rubbing anything in. 

If someone feels threatened or saddened by the way you love your husband and the way you speak about your life than I think it is a very real possibility they were feeling a little bit of conviction and rather than saying, "Wow, she inspires me. I want to be like that. I should try harder to honor and raise up my husband/family/kids/life." They decided to go the other route which is, "Ugh. SHE made me feel bad." The blame does not lie on you, but that is where it was placed. 

I don't want to dismiss your feelings because someone saying they interpreted my posts in that way would really devastate me because that is never my intention, either. So I totally can see that this might have spiraled you into a bit of insecurity so I'm here to just SHOUT FROM THE ROOFTOPS that your heart is seen and heard and understood. Please don't stop sharing whatever you want to share whenever you want to share it.

::Fist bump of solidarity:: 

P.S. I hope none of this was out of line and that you, too, can see my heart in it!"