WORKWORK34: Dear 2024… Without Conditions, Love
A letter from Love I wrote to myself about the year ahead.
Towards the end of 2023, I saw that Elizabeth Gilbert (writer of the famed Eat, Pray, Love) joined Substack with a newsletter of her own, called Letters From Love. The concept of writing myself a letter from Love seemed foreign but I understood the premise of it. Admittedly, I didn’t immediately feel drawn to trying my hand at it. That wasn’t until I was having a particularly difficult day with myself.
It was a day where somehow the thoughts in my mind expanded into a cruelness towards myself that doesn’t frequently reach coherence. My mind started spiraling, telling myself incredibly mean things about all sorts of ways that I exist in the world. It was in that moment, that I decided to sit down and write myself a letter from Love in my journal. Despite feeling incredibly shameful of myself, I knew from my inner work practice that I needed to learn to love all the parts of me, especially these ones. The words on the page just started flowing out of me. I started sobbing as I wrote one loving word after another. I was in awe that I could be so inhumane towards myself, saying things I would never in a million years say to someone else.
After that day, I realized how powerful a letter from Love can be, especially as a tool to speak kinder to oneself.
So, when I thought about writing the first WORKWORK of 2024, a fresh new year, where I like to lay out all the ways in which I’m resetting the walls in my garden and forming the framework for the freedom desired in the year ahead, I decided it might be nice to write a letter from Love. As ambitious people we can get rigid when we think about our goals and dreams, determined to see them through, no matter what. I think this letter welcomed a softness and an honesty to my reflection for 2024:
Dear Erin,
Oh how time moves so quickly for you these days. You love to have so much going on, don’t you? You thrive off of new challenges and the feeling of inspiration and potential. I know sometimes it tires you, too and guilt builds as you prioritize all that work and travel above other things. I know it can be scary to stand still for a little while or dive too deeply into one thing, but don’t forget that insights and challenge and opportunity can be found there, too. You already know that your greatest growth of all will come from complete stillness. There is no need to put it off for another day, or another time in life. As with all things, it is a process. Crawl to stand, walk to run, run to sprint — building the muscle and stamina through practice after practice. Don’t be cruel to yourself, forcing a sprint before you have even crawled. Do your best to find stillness during your days and wonder within the daily monotony, right now. There will never be a perfect time to focus here alone. Continue to practice stillness before it’s too late!
Because the certainty of each day is not given and we are well aware of this life’s finitude. Think of death more often, Erin. Oh boy that word carries so much energy doesn’t it? What would it be like to become more familiar with death? To visit its existence in our reality everyday? I think it might help you prioritize more clearly, open a portal to deep presence and connect with others through genuine curiosity.
You know that feeling when you are present? Isn’t that incredible that you can see what that looks like in your mind’s eye? It’s ironic that the concept of death can help you embrace the present more intensely, to the point where a single moment can feel infinite, no past and no future. You have the power to make time stand still whenever you please through complete presence. When you feel far away from the present, focus on the senses — What are you hearing, smelling, seeing, feeling?
And it’s not just you, everyone has to face death and most people don’t like thinking about it either. But that’s also what can connect you to them. Every person, regardless of their past actions, their present choices, or their future dreams has experienced life’s sobering finiteness or will some day. Allow that to break down the physical skin barrier of your bodies or disintegrate the natural judgement in our thoughts. Get curious about how they exist in this unknown expanse of time. You have only scratched the surface of your curiosity.
When you embrace finitude, your decisions become more obvious. That’s often the hardest part - making decisions. But when your priorities become clear, the work then pushes you further - are you bold enough to listen and act on those decisions?
I know you feel this year is presenting an intense call for ACTION in your career endeavors. Listen to it. You are at a beautiful point along your journey — filled with knowledge and experience of your past but still young, energetic and the right amount of naive. Embrace that and trust in yourself! In each moment, although new and in different contexts, you have been there before. You can pause for a brief moment and pull from the library of your experience. You know what to do already. Gone are the days of second guessing or weighing someone else’s perspective greater than your own — Trust in yourself and keep going! Apply inner work first, outer work second to your career by listening to yourself, looking within before seeking outside opinions or validation.
It’s so beautiful how you enjoy holding opposites in the same palm. Because of that, you well know that you did not get to this point alone and the future is only possible with the aid of others. It is all connected, like millions spiderwebs connected across planes of all angles to form the most delicate and intricately woven sphere. At your highest highs, remember nothing happened in a silo. And rejoice! Be grateful. Sincerely thank the ones you can see in your direct vision who have impacted this moment and still default to gratitude towards the ones who you might not immediately see their impact — they have played a key role in this moment too.
When you express more gratitude, it becomes like a roadmap. Those are the things you want more of. And when you start to see clusters of gratitude in certain areas of your life, you will start to notice them more, which strengthens your energy towards them. And soon the roadmap is pulling you naturally, with little effort!
And lastly, my darling, when you lay your head to sleep each night, let your mind drift mid-prayer. End your day by asking for blessings and good things for those you hold close to your heart.
Cheers to a momentous year ahead!
Without conditions,
Love