By the time you read this post, 2021 will be behind us and we will be entering into what feels to be a Year of Possibilities. And while there are many who say it is wise to keep your eye on the road ahead, I, for one, find great value in taking a peek back at where I have been (knowing well how that informs my journey forward). With that in mind, please allow me to share with you my Reflections on 2021…my final Love Letter of the Year, if you will.
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At the beginning of each year, my children and I choose a word or phrase to act as our Touchstone for the year to come.
My word for 2021 was Heart.
I had no idea at the time why I chose it, but now, as this year winds down, it is abundantly clear.
My Heart is full. And I’ve YOU to thank.
I have been writing Love Letters such as these for almost 20 years now. They began as newsletters that I would print off (because Email wasn’t quite what it is today!) and distribute to my clients via post or in-person at the office. I would schlep them to networking breakfasts and lunches, handing them out to anyone I met, asking them to read them and pass them along to others they met along the way.
In my imagination, these Letters – full of seasonal anecdotes and personal reflections from the year that we’d just had – found their way into the hands of Many who laughed at the silly cartoons I would place within, and tuck away into their own memories a smidgen of inspiration to draw upon when times would, invariably, seem a bit bleak.
I imagined these Letters prompting readers to consider their own year-gone-by, and perhaps writing such a Love Letter themselves, maybe tucking a favourite recipe or photo within, and sharing it with everyone they met (or setting it aside in a drawer to be read by themselves at some future date).
Funny how an almost-20-year-practice still brings me such Joy.
And fascinating, as well, how I still imagine these Words winding their way to you as they did in yesterdays, as though hand-over-hand they come to land upon your desk (and not as though they popped through the interwebs in the shortest span of time imaginable!)
And so, as I imagine it, as this Letter enters your hands one day in the not-so-distant future, you open it and exhale. You settle back. Your eyes take in the Words. And, in my imagination, your Heart feels the Love that accompanies this Letter.
Dear Reader, it is a joy and an honour to have my Words read by You. It is truly one of the greatest Gifts of doing this Work that I am so darn lucky to do. And so I thank you, from the bottom of my Heart.
Thank you, also, for all that we have shared this past year. The ups. The downs. The many, many ‘sideways.’ Indeed, it has been a year of Navigating The Unknown, and once again I am reminded of my Word for 2021 – HEART – for it was indeed our Hearts that lead the way these past many months.
Thank you for sharing your stories with me. For inspiring me to grow in ways I had not imagined possible. For alerting me to things that needed changing, and things that I needed to release.
And, Dear Reader, thank you for being YOU. For your formidable courage and resilience and deep, deep Knowing. Wow! but you are a powerful, beautiful, and awe-inspiring bunch. Thank you for letting your Light shine so bright.
To my clients and my team, to my business partner and all of our supporters, I also give my thanks. Without you, I could not do what I do, and I surely would not love the work nearly as much.
And last, but most certainly not least, allow me to publicly share my thanks to my friends and family. You, my beloveds, are my Why.
My Heart is indeed full as I wind down 2021, and I’ve each of you to thank. I wish you all a blessed 2022. May this coming year be filled with Possibilities, Laughter, and the deep, deep Joy that comes from knowing you are loved.