New Year 2021

To those who have left hints like breadcrumbs for others as you find your own way, thank you for having the courage to forge a new path, and for having the compassion to keep a candle burning as you go. There were times that your glimmer helped me find my way through the dark, and I’m sure I am not the only one.

To those who, during the hard times, poured yourselves into your art, thank you for giving us all hope through your song and dance, books, and tangible art. At times, it was your expression of beauty that brought me back and helped me remember my own.

To those who have accepted my love, may that exchange multiply like fields of flowers that sow their seeds to farther and farther reaches. And to those who have loved me, I return it ten fold, so that we may continue to bloom in greater and greater numbers.

To those whom I have hurt, I am sorry. You are precious and deserving of love, and if my words or actions ever conveyed less, know that you are not to blame. Please forgive me and I promise to do the same for others as well.

To those who have hurt me, I do not harbor any resentment and I free you from any blame. Thank you for showing me the things I needed to see and for the precious lessons I learned. Were it not for your sting, I may never have found the honey.

To those who are scared, or tired, or lonely, please hang on. We need your light – and it is there. Even when it seems like your world is ash, there is always an ember that burns steady and true.

To all who have crossed my own path, may yours be filled with blessings as vast as the seas. May you feel gentle breezes when the days are hard, and may their caress remind you to look to the stillness within. When you walk through the darkness, may you find your skies full of the brightest stars; and whenever you get lost may the sun and moon remind you of who you really are.

To this past year, thank you. Thank you for the lessons that have opened this heart wider and have lifted this soul higher. Thank you for revealing so many shadows and giving us all the chance to see – to see the sky beyond the clouds, the forest vaster than its trees, the sum of our many parts. Thank you for bringing so many back – back to their truth, back to their heart, back to their families, their art, their home, their values, and dreams.

To the moment before me, the setting of a day, the ending of a year, the stillness of the present, the dawning of an age, thank you for the chance to reflect, to regroup, and to reset. I am here and I am ready. Ready to step forward with my head up and my heart open. Ready to live. Ready to love. Ready to shine.

To year ahead, I already love you. Let’s do this.

© 2020 Cristen Writes