How it Started vs How it’s Going 💫

Garion Sparks-Austin Founder & Director of Co & Associates Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist

The photo on the left is one of the first—and only—pictures I have to prove I’m human.

Most people seem to have a whole archive from the moment they entered the world. Freshly out of the womb. Documented. Verified. Timestamped. But not me.

For a long time, that used to bother me. Not because the photo itself mattered, but because of what it represented: how easily we’re taught to measure our existence by proof. By boxes ticked. By artifacts that validate our worth—rather than by the experiences that shape us into who we are.

What bothers me less now—at least most days—is knowing that everything is temporary. And that we are not defined by temporary things: moments, words, images, seasons of our lives. We’re captivated by them, yes. Sometimes we cling to them, sometimes we grieve them. But temporary things are still temporary.

Human beings aren’t fixed. We are meant to move, to heal, to adapt, to meander through life at different paces. Our thoughts change. Our moods shift. Our mindsets evolve. So much so that by the time we reach the end of life—if we’re lucky enough to grow old—we may only faintly resemble who we were at the beginning.

The photo on the right was a shame-free selfie I took last week.

And in that moment captured, there was so much emotion—some of it internal, and some of it I can still feel rising from memory. The path that brought me here has been complex and simple, terrifying and beautiful, freeing and masterfully disastrous. All of it compiled into my existence.

There are moments of pure frustration. Exhaustion. Terror. Stress. Hysteria.

And then there are the moments that soften everything. The ones filled with beauty and gut-filling joy—the kind that feels like it permeates every cell, like I’m beaming like a Care Bear. The moments marked by love, simplicity, appreciation, abundance, gratitude, stillness, peace.

Life is painted with so many colours and so many brushes. It isn’t one-size-fits-all. No two journeys are the same.

Every experience—sometimes every single moment—invites us into choice. Often without predictable outcomes. Often without certainty. And yet those choices become part of what builds our foundations, our stories, our becoming.

The ongoing beauty of life is in rediscovering our resilience. Our strength. Our self-compassion. It’s in re-learning and redefining our boundaries—what we stand for, and who we’re continually evolving into.

There’s only so much stagnancy available to us. The more we loosen our grip on resistance to change, the more space we create to persevere and grow. Who we were yesterday doesn’t define who we are today. Pieces of our past may always remain—but we can choose to leave behind what no longer serves us, and carry forward only what we need. How we started is not a sentence. It doesn’t mean we’ll be the same tomorrow.

What matters most is that we keep going—and refuse to stop evolving.

Until next time,

-Garion Sparks-Austin