Published on December 16, 2015. This piece is part of a “From the Archives” series on The Wanderlust Journal in celebration of our 10 Year Anniversary in 2019.
Dear 2015,
Grateful to have known you. Thank you for teaching me about my capacities—for love and kindness, strength and softness, incredible inappropriateness and full forgiveness.
You’ve shown me that my heart is enough. You’ve granted me closeness to a partner whose willingness to evolve has informed my own evolution. You’ve helped me understand the heart of my child as a child of the Universe; I am blessed to have this hilarious healer in my own home, a creative collaborator, a superb source of light; nine years, many lifetimes old. Thank you for granting me the ability to see him and treat him respectfully.
Thank you for taking me on long walks with wise leaders, putting me in touch with strong spiritual seekers, and for helping me believe I am a teacher amongst teachers. Thank you for reminding me to circle the fire, chant till I’m free, and trust that when I hear the calling, it really is for me.
Thanks also for sending me the best collaborators. I’m now hooked on the feeling i have when a colleague or co-teacher contacts me and we’re aligned, right on time. It’s one of the finest gifts of this year and I’m grateful to sit nearby this fine truth and clear wisdom.
When you closed a door, you closed it gently, so I could hear the latch click and know precisely when it was time to look for the next opening. And thank you for every subsequent sacred new beginning; each was a quiet blessing force that carried me onward.
Thank you for my new life, my sobriety. You were my first full year intentionally clean and clear. I’ve never felt more beautiful, more peaceful. More complete. More real.
Thank you for making sure I took the time to connect to my friends and family. Thank you for inspiring me to apologize when I acted less than extraordinary. Thank you for helping me see that my business is a source of light, and for moving me to find ways to live my work that feel just right.
Thank you for the courage to look myself in the eyes to create an atmosphere of compassion. Thank you for the knowingness to sit with consistency, and for the willingness to rise when it’s time to bring the best of me.
And in the presence of long, lingering moments of doubt, you brought me to a new, true sense of love for myself, a tenderness for myself at every age, a rewriting of a story that needed to be retold. This burgeoning love releases any sense of separateness, and reminds me of the oneness that propels me forward in all my relations.
Thank you for making kindness sexy and easy. And thank you for placing me close to soul friends and family who truly see me.
May 2016 reveal a new stratosphere of gratitude. May I continue to experience within myself a reverent attitude, a worship that resonates clear and true; may this prayer be a truth that carries us all through.
Love,
Elena
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Mama, teacher, speaker, and co-author of Art of Attention, Elena has been teaching yoga and meditation since 1999. After graduating from Cornell University in 1992 with a design degree, she worked as a textile and apparel designer for 6 years, and has been studying with master yoga teachers since 1997. Elena offers yoga and meditation as a way to approach our world with realistic reverence and gratitude. Her classes are a masterful, candid blend of artful alignment and attention cues for your body, mind and heart.