Navigating Alone On The Holiday – With Grace.
This piece was first published on elephant journal, a leading online publication with over 10 million unique readers each month.
I sit here allowing the sun to rise
on another glorious day
because I choose for it to be so.
Glorious.
Divine.
Delicious.
I could look upon this day
With sad eyes
A lonely heart
A troubled mind
Believing I am alone.
But I don’t
And here’s why.
Today is a holiday.
But for me everyday is a holiday,
Not simply those dictated by law, custom, tradition,
Or religion.
When you see each day as a
gift
Something in you
shifts.
Mathew McConaughey said it recently, while interviewed on The Rachel Hollis Podcast, “We were reminded early on not to take the sun rising this morning for granted. That was a gift, you better damn well be thankful for it.”
Imagine if you never took another 24-hour
Trip around the sun,
Dreamtime-spin with the stars
As a given…
But as a #blessing.
What would change with that one little shift of your attention?
For me,
Each day is a choice to embrace wholeheartedly
or to bury myself under a mount of patchwork quilts.
And I’ve done both.
Don’t think I haven’t sunk
down
down…
So far
down
I felt the drowning of me.
I’ve been so
low,
So cloaked in
sad
That the tiles
Beneath my sobbing breaths
Ceased to feel
cold.
So chilled to the bone
that getting up,
taking one step
was my Mount Everest.
Yet, climb out of that despair I did
And if one can do it
That’s proof positive you can
As well.
If you are ‘stuck’ in the proverbial deep, dark well of you.
This right here is a knotted-word-rope
out of your darkness,
into the Sunshine of you.
These words can be your life line.
Your place to crawl to…
For I can not crawl for you.
I can not lift you out
but my words can raise you high.
If you embrace them.
If you listen to hear them.
If you desire a new yellow brick road to you.
It’s possible to find so much JOY today…
Any day.
In a crowded room
filled with those you love-to-hate.
Or solo on your sofa,
Hot mug of somethang-somethang in hand.
I hug each day
A long-lost friend.
Precious.
Precarious.
As though it’s my last.
Because I choose too.
On this day, I will stop and give thanks,
Yet, I do this each and every day.
And when I want to try on my SuperPower
I find grace and gratitude and the JOY within.
Today is a holiday
And I am alone––
Physically.
But emotionally my cup-runneth over
Because I love myself.
Because the Negative Nelly in my mind
is tied tight with purple ribbons
not allowed out
to distract-play
with me.
That #critical voice
silenced by my wicked JOYful smile.
My knowing that I am enough.
When you lean into that right there,
You know you are not alone.
Even if no one is near...
Imagine if on this day,
every day,
you made friends
with your lone self.
Imagine if on this day,
every day,
you spoke to yourself
with compassion,
kindness,
JOY.
To be alone is only lonely if you say it is.
To be alone is a gift that bears the greatest of harvests
When you can stand your own self.
When you can love every inch of you
Inside and out.
When you can embrace the silence as
a delicious offering
That can bring you
peace,
ease,
even understanding…
Of just how special you are.
For you are, or you would not be here.
You are not a mistake.
This day is not an error.
You, alone, or feeling alone
Is just as it should be.
Must be.
Need be.
When you see that,
When you stop pushing on the pull door of life
And sink in…
All will shift for you.
When you rise up to what is
See it for your benefit
Not detriment…
All will open wide.
You can hang
your holiday decorations
on the idea-tree of
I am so alone
And spiral down.
So
far
down.
You can light
a new candle
to illuminate
a version of you
perhaps you were afraid
to unwrap…
Till now.
Glorious
Victorious
Amazing is you.
I see you.
Packaged so perfectly-imperfect.
Stop hiding…
Stop swimming in despair.
For, if you dare,
you are
so past ready
to be
unwrapped…
By you, yourself, not I.
Are you ready to get to know the gift of you?
Because only when you take a beat,
A pause,
A space,
A moment.
Today, perhaps…
And you lean into knowing
Fully,
Deeply,
Truly
That you are a precious gem...
One of a kind.
Divine.
Sink into that
On this day
Any day.
For truly
You are never alone
When you are your own very best friend.
And when you want more insight…
When you’re ready to fully tap into the JOY that is within…
Hear your #truth and sink into a knowing,
Not just an understanding
that you are enough…
Join me for JOYnotes, a Wednesday Words series, from me to you.
Words, a message, a dance of my alphabet
Penned in purple ink
to support you,
Uplift you,
Shine the brightest of lights upon you
And remind you that you are never alone…
On this day nor any other day.
If this message captured your heart, consider giving it a heart to support these words. Words that you could share with another person right now and make viral.
Leave me a comment if you do, Sunshine, as I want to thank you for being you.
These words where first published on Elephant Journal and have the potential to impact lives in a massive way. See Elephant Journal is an online publication with more than 10 million readers a month.
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How you show up today impacts another’s future and your own in ways you can’t even begin to comprehend.
Share JOY today and receive so much more . . .
