Farewell to the year. This is what 2023 gave me.
Every December, I go back to review the wealth of journal entries, notes, and external processing voice memos recorded over the course of my year.
These are the words that painted in the lines of my last 365 days, and I’m always sobered, surprised, and grounded by what I rediscover, often forgetting what I’d written or what quotes that resonated deeply enough that I wrote them down.
Self-reflection is the only way I recognize I’ve changed with time, so I make a point to look back each year to take stock of what this chunk of my life has given me.
Here are some of my 2023 favorites:
"Our hearts and bodies are given to us only once and before you know it, your heart is tired [...] Don't kill the pain and with it, the joy you felt." Andre in Call Me By Your Name
Call your mom while you still have a mom to call.
Give people the gift of being there for you.
This is an opportunity to begin believing my vulnerability left me looking strong and not weak.
God / Love / Health / Centeredness / Spirit / The Divine -- maybe these are all terms of endearment for the same entity, and we get lost in the semantics of our pride by trying to control how we address him. He lays himself over cultures reaching us any way we allow his light to crack through. What a dangerous and heinous mentality to believe you get to determine how people experience him.
Let it be what it’ll be.
"Confidence is accepting what is. Joy is loving what is." Emily Nagoski
It'll take the time it'll take.
Days are boring but this life is rich.
I am more the woman I want to be with every choice I make to be her.
"What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation." Don DeLillo, White Noise
"I believe if there's any kind of God, it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it’s impossible to succeed, but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt." Celine in Before Sunrise
Ask an adult to compliment a child and you'll immediately discover what they value most.
These are the sacred days. The ones you'll look back on and reflect, "Those are the days that forged me." Your future self is screaming, "Keep going! Keep going! Keep going!"
Everywhere you want to go, be, create, and do in your life is on the other side of pain, discomfort, and fear.
What did 2023 gift you? I’d love to know.