All this talk and turmoil and noise and movement and desire is outside the veil; inside the veil is silence and calm and peace. —Abu Yazid Al-Bistami

Thank you for full moon walks.

Thank you for a therapist’s wisdom on dreams, from a Jungian perspective. 

Thank you again for a life-changing book, Man and His Symbols, borrowed (stolen) from my mom at seventeen.

Thank you for us, we, and ours.

Thank you for disparate emotions you wouldn’t expect to coexist in harmony.

Thank you for mujaddara cravings. 

Thank you for humble meals. 

Thank you for the promise of a tailor-made kitchen. Thank you for culinary adventures. 

Thank you for lime plaster.

Thank you for the view from my future bedroom. 

Thank you for AV designing the house with love and RGJ setting it up with care. Thank you for kindness from everyone involved with the project.

Thank you for a first choice falling through (the tiny house). I see better why home matters: community, connections.

Thank you for visions brought to life.

Thank you for NM celebrating those on her path. 

Thank you for positive feedback from strangers on mats and saddles. 

Thank you for Kim bringing up “the power in the pause.” When I remember to pause, I gain control.

Thank you for women of color.

Thank you for the vacation feel when not on vacation. You’re relaxed. You have no agenda. You’re enjoying life—the weather, sights, people… Thank you for magic to summon such moods in daily life. Mindfulness helps. 

Thank you for kitchen chats with housemates.

Thank you for GC asking, “Do you enjoy your own company?” May you be a friend to yourself, too.

Thank you for GB’s first impression of kale during lunch at Follow Your Heart: “It’s very chewy.” 

Thank you for longtime friends sacrificing joyfully for each other. 

Thank you for focus on solutions.

Thank you for understanding problems to focus on solutions. Thank you for digging, carefully, mindfully, beneath problems to understand them. 

Thank you for underlying sources. Attention to them may preclude worries about more superficial stuff.

Thank you for my hidden insides making their selves known when I write without knowing what to say. Thank you for a pencil, a notebook, and a few minutes.

Thank you for outlets that give voice to the unconscious. Thank you for self study.

Thank you for the growing perception that I am in control lately. That’s not exactly accurate, though. I see that none of us truly has control. Maybe the control part is our freedom to choose, and to practice, what we surrender to.

Surrender is expansive when not oppressed by fear of suffering or driven by desire to escape. And I know that I’m surrendering to my fear and desire when I let them distort or hide truths.

When, instead, honesty guides me, when I let it have control, it brings fullness. It opens to gratitude and acceptance. I’m empowered. Thank you for control gained by letting go in the right ways. (Or am I better to let go even of the notion of surrender, somehow just to be in alignment with a higher self? I don’t know.)

Wishing us awareness that we have everything we need to release what doesn’t serve us, opening space for freedom in truth.

Be well <3