On this day, when some of you are celebrating the New Year, I want to thank you for being here with me, and share with you some of my journey over the past three years.
This is a photo of me at home, taken in 2021 on the winter solstice day. This was less than a week after we moved from Vancouver, Canada, to a small town on Lil’wat Nation lands (Pemberton, Canada).
My partner and I inhabit part of this beautiful house surrounded by cedar trees and farm fields. We are renters and the house is for sale, so our future here is unknown.
The journey to this land involved a lot of yearning and many tears. In order to get where I wanted to go, I had to let go of a lot, including my home and family of 18 years. It is not easy to let go of something that you still love with all your heart. But I took the leap, and as you can see, we landed in a beautiful place.
This is a time of year where intentions may be set. Perhaps you are also yearning for something else?
I have spent a lot of time longing for something different, writing my dreams and goals and setting my sights on how I’d like to live. This typically involves yearning to live in nature and community that enlivens my soul, and doing work that fills my pockets while helping others.
I am glad I have focused my will so intently on living the best life I can with the people I love. Yet, I have noticed that this drive to be somewhere else, or to have more, can make me sicker. It causes tension and a focus that puts my system into stress and upset. Over-grasping and reaching drags down my mood, and can flood me with feelings of shame and despair.
At the same time, dreaming of a life that could be keeps me inspired! It’s a drive that propels me towards new experiences, even when I am gripped by fear of change. But I must remember to also rest, to yield to the earth, and that there is nothing to do other than live.
I could spend my entire life, as some of us do, wishing for something else. But this is my life. And although I struggle with pain, work and making money and many other challenges, I am loved. I am cared for. I am safe.
I am loved. I am cared for. I am safe.
If I am to write any goals for this coming year, it is to say to myself regularly, this is my life. This is enough. I am enough.
You have seen that I created a title for this little substack I have going, which I have a lot to say about, as well as the usual how we grew stories, audio recordings and other neat things.
I also have some online courses coming in 2025! I am especially excited for this, as I’m creating these courses with friends and colleagues. Collaboration feels invigorating, and exactly what is needed during these difficult times.
Let’s get together in 2025 and write, create poetry, art, gardens and more beauty! Let us in community embody our dreams!
WRITING and MOVEMENT PROMPTS
Here are some writing and movement prompts to take you into the new year, if you so choose it:
Write all the ways in which your life is enough.
Express how you are enough with your body. What movement arises when you embody “I am enough”.
What if you were to see others as enough? How would your relationship(s) change if your partner(s) were enough? How would your home life and the place you live in change in your eyes or imagination if it was enough? How would your work change if it was enough?
Again, thank you so much for being here with me. If you celebrate the new year at this time, Happy New Year!
With love,
Kelly
I’m choosing to close comments on my posts but I’d love to hear from you! Email me at: contact@kellygordon.ca.
Want to hear about upcoming online classes? Sign up to my Substack or send me a message.