What do you want to leave behind?
solstice blessings
Hi friends,
Thank you so much for being here with me for another year of Serenity Never. Thank you for giving me your attention. In a world where attention is finite and so many of us feel like there’s not enough time in the day to digest all the words and images we possibly could, it’s not lost on me that you give me your time to read my words. If I could show the younger me that people would read my words regularly and enjoy them (or hate them, as the case has sometimes been), she wouldn’t believe it to be true. She had little faith, which is a good reminder for present-day me (and probably present-day you).
Yesterday was the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. It’s a day I’ve celebrated for years, always taking time to do some ritual to mark the transition of the seasons. Last night, I wrote down everything I want to leave behind this year, which I’ll use as fertilizer for what I want to grow in 2024. I started it late in the evening because I spent much of my night dancing to Mariah Carey in my living room and sending videos to my best friends, another extremely important traditional solstice ritual. If we’re not laughing whilst we’re doing healing work, then what the fuck is the point?
The list was long, my friends. There was a huge chunk of this year that my mental health was in the toilet, under a pile of shite, and darkness reigned. You get the idea. I am so grateful that I managed to pull myself out of it (with much help). I want to leave that behind, and yet I know that grief tends to pull us in no matter what because that’s part of being alive. And yet, I still write it down, hope for the best, and intend to make space for the continued good to coexist beside the bad. I wrote each thing I wanted to leave behind on a piece of paper and ripped it up.
The pile got bigger and bigger, and I felt myself judging. “It’s not been all bad, don’t be so dramatic”,“ the voice goes. That pesky inner critic who always has something to say. But that’s not the point. There was a lot of good this year. And there’s a lot I don’t want to take with me. All the many things I want to leave behind did something for me, taught me something and helped me grow. But they’re not welcome here anymore, so I bless them all and move on.
So, with my final little note of the year, I’ll ask you, too — what do you want to leave behind in 2023? What do you no longer need to hold on to? It can be anything from a relationship, a pattern, a habit, the olives in your fridge, or an old pair of shoes that can go to a new home. It doesn’t have to be that deep (but it can be if that’s what you’re going for). I find, with ritual, that balance is key. No light without dark and all that. A little Mariah Carey, a few tears and a big pile of the things you don’t need anymore to take you towards what you want. Help, head. Help heart.
I’m teaching a Body Temple Dance and Breathwork workshop at Maha Rose in Brooklyn tonight at 6pm. There’s still time to sign up! Learn more and sign up here.
With love,
Nora x