Dear 2020,

Thank you for your lessons.

You taught me:

• To listen more deeply – to myself and others.
• My needs can be an offering and opening to greater connection.
• I am human – I can’t be everything to everyone, and I don’t have to be good to be loved.
• Body first, business second. -Kate Northrup
• I am not responsible for others’ growth, I’m only here to love them through it.
• I cannot tell the future.
• I’m willing to live with myself, no matter what. I look forward to living with myself, no matter what.
• To live my life, let my kids live theirs, and love them fiercely while doing it.
• The best-case scenario is just as likely as the worst. Believe in it.
• WHEN YOU’RE STUCK: Drop down into your body. Feel. Listen. Move. Turn it over. Offer it up. Do the work that’s yours to do. Let God do theirs.
• I am a human, standing on a dog, standing on a crocodile -Mike McHargue, You’re a Miracle (And a Pain In The Ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery That Make You You
• To pay attention to and care about how I FEEL.
• That when I imagine a future where I get sick and die – I’m living into a scenario that is out of my control. When I imagine a future where I keep showing up to what is, with gentleness and care for myself, I feel so much less anxiety. I’m living into a scenario that is within my control.
• If we don’t wrestle with anger, we never get to the heartbreak. And if we don’t get to the heartbreak, we don’t get to the healing. -Lama Rod Owens, Love and Rage

Thank you for the joy.

I found joy in:

• Deep cleaning – like, on hands and knees with a toothbrush
  

  The Necessary Accessory of 2020

• Long baths and lots of oils
• Family TV watching: Ted Lasso, Bob’s Burgers, Blackish
• Long walks
• Exploring my neighborhood
• Rhythms + Rituals – the daily chore list, morning meditation, evening gratitude, following the lunar cycle
• Playing games – Superfight, Monopoly, Life, Cards Against Humanity
• Happy Hours with my parents
• Zoom dates with friends + family
• Naps
• Completing my stress cycle – swamping, jumping, shaking, breathwork
• Being home
• Watching shows with Chris: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, United Shades of America, Better Things, One Mississippi, Schitts Creek
• Naps
• Podcasts – Dolly Parton’s America, Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us, Morgan Harper Nichols
• Sunday Sabbath and State of the Unions
• Activism – writing, texting, calling, giving money
• Biden/Harris winning the presidential election

 

 

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Thank you for the space to grieve.

I grieved the losses of:

• Hugs
• Grandma – even though she died in 2019, I felt the loss more deeply this year
• Spending time with my siblings and their children
• Traveling – to see Chris’ family in Boise, Oregon Country Fair, Brownlee, the beach
• George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Riah Milton, Dominique Remmiefells
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• John Lewis

Thank you for the teachers and mentors.

I welcomed new teachers and mentors:

• Rachel Cargle
• Morgan Harper Nichols
• Colleen Jones
• Prentis Hemphill
• Sarah Gottesdiener
• Marlee Grace
• Emily and Amelia Nagoski
• Alex Elle
• Drew Hart

 

My 2020 contained so many FFTs (F**ing First Times – thank you, Brene Brown, for this descriptive term) – so much tragedy, loss, confusion, and struggle. It also contained magical synchronicity, unexpected joy, opportunities for rest, and deepened connection.

May we tuck away and integrate the lessons that are ours to carry forward, and may we leave behind what no longer serves us, as we cross the threshold from one year to the next.

If you’d like support as you reflect and process all that you’re leaving behind in 2020, I made you this free Reflection Guide.

I’m wishing you joy, peace, and rest – dear one. Here’s to continuing to show up for ourselves and each other in 2021.

With so much love,

Brea