As you enter 2021, may you see the sun up ahead, lighting your path

May the sunrise each day remind you that every day is an open door, every day is a baptism, that every day you get to begin again.

May you encounter the best surprises this year, the ones that remind you that there is a time to rejoice and that hope is not foolish.

May you find the fullness of your heart and may you embrace all that you are and all that everyone else is.

May the birds remind you that the world needs your song, your words, your heart, and that we are richer because you exist. 

May the waves reaching the shore remind you of the foundations of this earth, that life is both predictable and ever-changing, that you can fall into the steadiness beneath you and trust that the tide will carry you where you need to go. 

May the seeds and plants, the fields and orchards, the fox and the hawk, the fish and the clams remind you of your place in things and the duty you owe to the Earth herself.

May you love the stranger, the person you don’t understand, your enemy, the person you hate. May you turn hate on its head and allow love to overtake you, and may that love become stronger than the hate that makes you feel strong, the hate that tells you you’re right. 

May you say yes to reality and no to pretending. May you let go of all denial. 

May you say yes to forgiveness, to unlocking yourself from your cell, and set yourself free.

May you say yes to boundaries, to protecting yourself from those who repeatedly hurt you. And may you celebrate your ability to create those boundaries and be free from guilt for doing so.

May you tend your own acre and allow others to tend theirs, respecting their acre as theirs. May you dream and plan and sow the seeds you want to sow. May you see your garden flourish.

May you see the habits that don’t serve you and find a way to forgive yourself for those habits and let go of the judgments you hold against yourself. May you say thank you to them for the way they helped you to the place you are now. May you let go of them to make room for new ways of seeing, new ways of being, and new ways of living that give more to you and take less from you.

May you find the life-giving spring inside you where your creativity resides, the desire to live out of that place, and the freedom to create without fear and without judgment.

May you lean into the seasons of your life and say yes to what is—to winnowing, to the fallow time, to new beginnings, to flourishing. 

May you celebrate every good thing, appreciate the beauty around you, and carry an expectation for goodness.

When you encounter darkness in 2021, may it be by the light of the full moon. But if it should grow so dark as a night with a new moon or a sky full of clouds, may you remember that is a breath, a pause, and not your forever.

May you greet each new day with wonder, with the commitment to live out of your true self and with the hope of loving others well. Every sunrise you get to try again.

Happy 2021, loves. We did it.