I’ve always had a high “figure it out” meter.

Not because I wanted to. Not even because I was good at it in the beginning. But because I had to be. That’s just how it was.

You get a flat tire with no spare? You figure it out. No babysitter? You figure it out. No plan, no map, no clue how to make something happen—but somehow, some way, it gets done. And if it doesn’t? You get blamed anyway. So… you figure it out.

I used to watch MacGyver as a kid. I was obsessed. That man could take two sticks, a shoelace, and a chewed-up bubble gum and make a rocket launcher. I didn’t realize at the time how close that felt to real life—watching folks make dinner from almost nothing, fixing broken chairs with Super Glue and prayer, cleaning laundry with no washing machine. Magic wasn’t fantasy. It was survival. 

My mother could mend anything with tape or Tylenol. That’s not a metaphor. She meant it literally. Something hurt? “Take a Tylenol, drink some water, and go lay down.” And honestly… she wasn’t wrong. Laying down did more than sleep the pain away. It bought time. It gave space. It reminded the body it was still here.

We didn’t have tools; we had instincts. We didn’t have time; we had rhythm. There was no manual—just an understanding: you don’t break down, you break through.

So I did. Over and over.

And I still do. People come to me now for the “Jennifer ’s Life Hacks.” My creative solutions. My weird ways of turning sideways problems into solvable puzzles. I love that about myself.

But here’s the truth that’s harder to say out loud:

Sometimes I don’t want to figure it out.

Sometimes I want to be the one who lays it down.

No tape. No plan. No fix. Just… rest.

There’s a kind of grief that comes with always being the strong one. The one who holds it together. Not because you’re not proud of your strength—but because some days, you wish someone would notice the weight before you have to name it. Some days, you just want to be held together without having to hold it all.

So this isn’t a lesson. And it’s not a pitch.

It’s just me, telling you—if you’re tired of figuring it out,

You don’t have to.

Not tonight.

Not every time.

Not alone.

Lay it down.

Even just for a little while.

The healing journey calls for rest along the way. #ridingthecrestofyourwave