The mid-winter solstice has passed. If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, we start returning to the light. Thank goodness as the short, grey days are really getting to me this year. Christmas is nearly here and will soon be done. Yes, despite putting up a tree and going to a Christmas concert, I’m still a grinch!
The last few months have been an exercise in trusting myself. Trusting my strength that I can get through the challenges. Trusting my body, that in spite of chronic fatigue, I can take the action to support my husband as he deals with his brain injury. Trusting that my writing is still worth committing to as I wrestle with these difficult issues.
Sometimes we don’t know our own strength or potential. We think we’ll never cope. But usually, we do.
This Christmas I urge you to do the same. Trust that your life is exactly right for you, just as it is. Sure, you can make improvements and work towards some goals, but know that you are enough, just as you are.
Trust that your writing is worthwhile. Maybe you publish frequently and you are pleased with your output and responses to it. Maybe you haven’t written as much as you would wish. Maybe nobody sees your writing but you. It doesn’t matter. Trust that the act of putting words on paper is creating value for you and for others. Trust that the thought processes you go through in order to write leave you in a better place than where you started.
My favourite Christmas film is It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey, played by the lovely Jimmy Stewart, is a young man with huge dreams to travel the world and become an architect. Owing to an unfortunate set of circumstances, he gets stuck in the small town of Bedford Falls running the family-owned savings and loan association. The crux of the movie is when he has a shortfall in his accounts, caused by his uncle, and faces being carted off to prison on Christmas Eve. He clutches a life assurance policy, which would cover the shortfall and decides he is worth more dead than alive.
George is saved when a guardian angel arrives and helps him to see how his life and his continual acts of kindness have made a hugely positive contribution to his friends, family and the town in general. He is finally convinced that the value of his life is far more than dollars, cents or glamorous achievement. In his hour of need the townspeople rally to help him and the film ends with his brother Harry declaring him the richest man in Bedford Falls.
Every single one of us also has a unique purpose, that only we can fulfil. Please be assured of yours. Maybe it involves your writing. Maybe it doesn’t. Please shine your light into your life, your family’s lives, your workplace and your community.
We need you, in all your imperfect glory.
You create more value than you realise. Your impact is bigger than you think. You do have something worthwhile to say.
Please shine forth, in a way that is unique to you. And have fun doing it!
I wish you a very merry Christmas. Thank you so much for all the love you have shown me these last few months. Let’s see what adventures we can have together in 2024.
Plodding gently
Cali xx
P.S. Do you like the star image? It’s the first time I’ve used generative AI to create a picture.
Hi Cali, Wishing you the very best in the coming year. You are awesome!!!
Thank you for your words which so completely match how you are living your life. That kind of congruency is really beautiful.