Hi. Hey. Hello. Howdy.
It’s the second to last week of 2021 but it feels like March 2020 in more ways than one. Going on three years of “living” through ~unprecedented~ times has felt like one long day. Am I the only way who feels like her relationship with the passage of time has become—for lack of a better word—totally fucked?
The end of the year is a reckoning in retrospection. Whether we like it or not, the way most of us mark the passage of time is the Gregorian calendar—birthdays, holidays, new years. So, as we are at the summit of the close of yet another year, I wonder what value there is looking backwards so often?
A few affirmations you may need to hear:
I focus on what I can control, I surrender to what I cannot.
I trust myself to weather the lows and celebrate the highs.
I give myself the gift of being present.
Some journal prompts for you to explore:
What is making you anxious?
Can you control it?
If you can’t, how can you release it?
2 things from the world-wide-web that made me laugh-out-loud:
Something I read this week that you absolutely should too:
A roundup of The Cut’s most read stories this year. A few personal favorites are as follows:
Those Were the Days of Our Lives by Danielle Henderson
What was the Wing? by Molly Fischer
Katie Couric is not for Everyone by Rebecca Traister
A photo I took, saved, or was sent to me that feels imperative to share:
And finally, this week, On: Growing
The ideas of “growth” or “healing” sound intimidating and a bit “new age” and honestly kind of like bullshit sometimes. But they don’t have to complicated or expensive or feel those ways. It all starts from a simple place—a place of willingness to get to the other side of what scares the shit out of you. On the other side of what scares the shit out of you is freedom. What would you do if you weren’t scared to fail? Where would you go if you weren’t resistant to growth? Who would be if you didn’t care what others think?
When you stop trying to be someone that everyone, or anyone, could love, you become someone that you DO love. You take yourself with you wherever you go, so it’s essential that you learn to love your own company. You can only connect to others as deeply as you are connected to yourself—so dig deeper into who you are every chance that you get.
One of the best parts about committing to a path of growth is that you don’t have to wait for “milestones” like a new calendar year to change your life. Because you’re already doing it. Every single day. In every moment that you push through resistance and choose to keep going down the path less traveled you are becoming a better version of you
This year may you let go of the “shoulds”, of the waiting, of the fear. May you learn to start changing things the second they no longer feel aligned. May you love yourself through your lows and celebrate yourself at your highs
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