December 24, 2019
- Amber
- May 16, 2020
- 2 min read
Merry Christmas Eve BOSLadies!
Because I’ll be starting my cross country move back to LA this Thursday, I am making this my last BOSLady letter for 2019. It’s a little longer and reads a little more like a journal entry than usual but I felt like there were some really important things to share. I hope that some piece of it resonates with you and that you can carry it into the new year with you. Happy holidays and safe travels everyone
The Closing Three of 2019
Something about the pain and clarity of reflection On Saturday, I attended a Winter Solstice Meditation Retreat led by Meryl Arnett of Sacred Chill West. I’ve previously shared her podcast The Mindful Minute on the recommendation of Catherine, from whom I was gifted the retreat. There were two meditations of about 30 minutes each, the first focusing on dark and the second focusing on light. At the end of the meditations, Meryl asked us all for one word to describe what the meditations had given us. My word was “relief”. The first meditation was a regression of the months in 2019, letting your mind go back one month at a time to whatever you associate with it. Recent months were sharply painful as expected, the beginning of the year hazy and blended. But when I looked at the present moment and what the immediate future holds, it was relief that I felt. Relief that what had caused pain and conflict turned out to be surmountable.
I share this for two reasons. One, to tell you all again that BOSLady is largely what gave me the courage and confidence to face the challenges I’ve come up against, to thank you for your contribution with all of my being. If this was a holiday rom-com, I’d say BOSLady is just what I asked Santa for two years ago. Second, I share this to recommend, if you have time, to sit down and think about the past year month by month. I was scared to. It wasn’t all going to be very nice. But just like the physical pain of a stabbing feeling in your knee when you run or when a tooth hurts when you bite down on it, emotional pain also signals that something of yours needs attention and mending. Maybe when you make yourself take a look, you’ll feel relief too, or, as a new and dear friend of mine did, understanding.
Something about The Wisdom of Insecurity As a said that it might, the first of the week’s three things probably read like a journal; it was really personal. I know that I can be vulnerable with all of you and that’s partly due to the fact that I felt safe enough to share my insecurities and it turns out, we have some of them in common. This book is about the fear of sharing and how when it is shared, insecurity can be a powerful bonder. Sound a bit like our book club? This recommendation came by way of Brad Stulberg of Outside magazine:
Something about the holidays to make you laugh regardless of what you celebrate Some experiences are just universal.
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