Although this time of year is suppose to be decked with joy, family, and giving, often it can pull it’s opposite closer, loneliness and despair. It’s not uncommon to feel depression at its peak when the holidays come around. Maybe it’s because they remind us of what we use to have or of all the things we wish we did have. We try to bend ourselves to fit the stereotype of what we think our lives should look like. It is so very difficult to accept exactly where we are in the pressure of holiday perfection, especially if we happen to be struggling.

My birthday happens to fall around the holiday rush. This year a long held wish is coming true, my own home. I think of it as a new physical home to go along with the new inner home I’ve been working so hard on the last couple of years. Trust me it has been an epic struggle to come to terms with, and let go of what no longer suits me, but it has also given me everything I’ve been missing and a couple of things I didn’t even know I needed. So I though I might use my birthday wish as an offering. A wish for all of us to let go of what no longer heals and inspires us so the things that do will find a way into our lives. Finding the strength and bravery to let go of that which holds us back is a small miracle set against the backdrop of ordinary days.

This offering holds within it the possibility of letting go of what we think our lives should look like and learning to let them be what they actually are. But we need reminding that this possibility exists. I carry these beautiful words from Hafiz as a reminder about how moods descend and how they suddenly lift, as if something much larger than our grasping ego has wiped the worry from our brow, and has carried off what no longer nourishes us. There is power in releasing what we can’t control to help ease the pressures we face everyday.

I hope these words take up residence and soothe some of the sorrow that inevitably finds its way into all of our lives.

Without making me realize my soul’s anguished history,

you slip into my house at night and,

while I am sleeping,

you silently carry off all my suffering and sordid past

in your beautiful hands.    – Hafiz

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