A note for the end of the year:
Last week I had the privilege of completing my final book coaching session of the year with my teacher, Davi. I first came across her Instagram back in 2022, intrigued by her mission of creating a platform for Latino artists to share their voices. I had periodically checked in on her classes and offerings, never really having the confidence to make a commitment to anything.
But this has gone against the promise I made myself at the end of the last year: to try new things despite the fear that may ensure. I’m a firm believer in not allowing myself to become stationary in life, even when it means putting things on hold (like this Substack). True growth stems not by what our hands create, but by our transformed thoughts. If you reached the end of with unfinished goals but are a bit wiser because of it, then that’s a win in my book.
Whether you’re a resolution type or not, new year’s eve has a way of inviting us to reflect the old and ponder the new. While there is no problem with giving yourself permission to end the year the same way that it started, that implies that there was no change. That’s impossible. If you didn’t complete all of the intentions that you had for 2023, it doesn’t mean that you have remained absolutely the same. Successes aren’t always visible. Sometimes they’re in the small moments of everyday life, and they’re easy to miss unless we pay attention.
Here is what came of this last session:
A new season brings death to old ways. Yet it is not the death that we mourn but the loss of the skin that we shed, and its familiar comfort. We fear the pain of release, without realizing that its the weight of the burdens that we decorated as “comfort.” We whisper to ourselves “nothing changes until something changes,” pretending that the magic of transformation isn’t in our hands.
Yet the wisdom of our past is what guides our steps. It is not the path that is new, but rather the awareness of a new us.
May you have a safe and joyful new year.
xoxo,
Lizzy