17 Dec What Really Matters This Christmas – Our Founder Shares Her Thoughts

I help people to heal. To find greater purpose and joy in their lives. I share tools and, oh, I have got so many tools to help me find my centre, to see reality and to let go of my baggage – and these tools work. And yet, I sit here two days into my holiday and I can feel it’s going to take much longer than usual for me to unwind, destress and to just sink into being fully here, now. Why am I telling you this? I’m sharing this because I feel more than ever what really matters this Christmas is compassion.

Compassion. This is the million dollar gift this year.

This is the gift that will keep on giving.

And honestly, this is what I pray that each of us receives and gives in great abundance.

2020 has been a humdinger. That’s not to say it’s been negative – for many this has been a really positive year – there have been so many hidden blessings in the chaos – and for many not. But regardless of what side of the fence your perspective takes you – it’s been a lot. 2020 has been traumatic – even if you have navigated it with aplomb and come out more victorious than ever. 

It is when we are aware of a greater uncertainty that life feels its most precarious, and those things that really matter come into the sharpest focus.

This is not the year we need more plastic. But it is also not the year we need more judgement. There is an unspoken invitation when you look into the tired eyes of all those around you – an invitation to practice compassion. To allow yourself to shelve the shoulds and shouldn’ts, both of yourself and others.

A wise teacher impressed upon me years ago that we always need to do our best, and it is when we live our lives committed to doing our best that we find peace – for no matter the outcome, there is never more we can do than our best. But, our best differs from day to day, year to year and circumstance to circumstance. And to master this practice we need to be able to discern with compassion and to accept when our best looks a little forlorn and bruised.

And so I am making one commitment during this holiday – and that is to drop all expectations of myself and others. To rise to the opportunity inherent in the challenge that this has been, and still is, and to soften and grow into a person who practices more compassion for myself and others. The amazing thing about compassion is that without it forgiveness is impossible. And there is nothing that weighs more than unresolved and unforgiven pain, and so as we give, we receive.

In the lineage I work in, we live that all healing is self healing.

And so I’d like to propose that what really matters this Christmas is unity – through compassion. Let us not let this pandemic divide us further. Let us learn to try and stand in the shoes of others. Let us allow the spirit of good to flow through us. Let this be the season of kindness, generosity and good old fashioned cheer.