Sometimes we can’t say out loud the words that live inside of us. Maybe what we feel frightens us, maybe all our words feel stale, or we’ve outgrown them. Sometimes we are just too busy for our own good and don’t even recognize the words whose time has come to be spoken aloud and lived. The human journey can be confusing, difficult, painful, and filled with obstacles, but it can also offer incredible beauty, joy, and awe. It all depends on us. Our perspective, what we choose, and how much we are paying attention. We have to be grounded within the firm foundations of the truth of ourselves in order to see with more clarity and depth.

The end of the year offers a natural time to pause and reflect on the things that changed us, adventures we had, and where we find ourselves at this moment in time. But don’t stop there. Don’t be satisfied with a wistful glance at a jam-packed year. Take the time to see all of who you are and speak the illusive words that live inside. These are often the things we take for granted, the things that are hard to reconcile, or that are a little prickly around the edges. Now is the time to see all of it, what you have contributed, what’s changed, and what still waits to be seen. Start by making a list of your offerings: to yourself, your family, your community, and the world. Stand firmly in who you are and honor what you have brought to life. It is time to respect what you’ve accomplished by saying it and living it out loud.

Don’t make it complicated, make it real. Did you bring kindness, patience, joy? Maybe you offered up some culinary kitchen magic to feed the family you love. Did you walk softly upon the Earth? Do you inspire others? What do you nourish daily? What do you find at your still center in the quiet hours? It’s easy to overlook the small things we do, the less obvious pieces of who we are, and all we offer day in and day out. This year it’s time to make it concrete. When we acknowledge and give ourselves credit for what we do and everything we contribute we are living vertically, meaning more consciously aware and engaged in our life journey. It takes us down into the depths of our soul and high into more possibilities than we can currently imagine. This is part of the magic of cultivating greater awareness. It is how what lives inside begins to take root and be lived on the outside. When we recognize and own all the pieces of ourselves, the great and the not so great, it gives us the freedom to live our truth in everything we do. Then we are ready for what comes next.

What’s next for you?

Happy New Year

kb

Here are some words spoken aloud from the soul of another that speaks straight to my soul. Perhaps you will see yourself mirrored in them as well. Perhaps it inspires you to look for the words that speak to you.

Admit something: Everyone you see, you say to them, “Love me.”

Of course you do not do this out loud: Otherwise Someone would call the cops.

Still though, think about this, This great pull in us To connect.

Why not become the one Who lives with a full moon in each eye That is always saying,

With that sweet moon Language,

What every other eye in this world Is dying to Hear.

– Hafiz