Planting Seeds

setting intentions and clarifying the vision

Dec 17, 2023

For anyone who’s been following along this year, you know that 2023 was personally quite a doozy. I spent the first half of the year plotting my departure from things that felt as though they were no longer serving me, and the second half in what has felt like yet another dark night of the soul. Since relocating to the woods, I’ve cocooned and gone into deep rebirthing mode. I think I might still be there, and I’m honoring that place of reestablishing my needs, tuning into my true knowing and greatness, and trusting that each little step forward is for my best interest and highest destiny.

2023 brought a shift to friendships, an abrupt (yet long-time simmering) decision to leave a city I called home for six years, quitting my job (a true hallelujah moment), a wild summer with many panic attacks and the infamous lost luggage adventure, a sprinkle of life-changing family news, my parents’ decision to move states and leave a home I became very fond of to start a new chapter of their own lives, and a temporary home in the woods with no clear idea of what or where is next. Although all of these things are beautiful and robust, it has been a wild ride. And when I take inventory of 2023 (and frankly the past four years) I keep coming back to the notion that change is truly the constant. I’ve been yearning for grounding when grounding perhaps is just not in the cards.

And I think what I’ve discovered in 2023 is that the grounding I yearned for week after week was something that instead I had to create for myself in between the folds of the chaos. 2023 challenged me to sit in the present (as much as an anxious person can), strap on my seatbelt, and enjoy the journey. Because more and more, life is showing me that it is more akin to the ocean with ever-changing conditions, each day bearing a new set of conditions that call on us to continuously improvise.

If you can’t tell, I enjoy looking back on each year as it draws to an end. But equally as important, I challenge myself to look forward. A few years ago, when the new year of 2021 was approaching, I came up with an idea to make a bracelet with the word that represented the energy I aimed to harness in the new year. 2020 was a dark year, but also a year where I looked into those shadows and retrieved my inner child. I brought her back into my heart. I had started writing what has now become this newsletter, and named it Ronny. Ronny is my father’s nickname, and Ron in Hebrew means “joy”. In 2021, my aim was to bring joy and lightness into my life. I ate cake, I put on music in the house, I focused on finding this joy in the darkness. And looking down at my word bracelet reminded me of this intention daily.

This morning, as I write to you, I arrived at my word. Boundless. Maybe 2024 is the year that I release expectations. Go with the flow more often. Embrace boundlessness by letting go of the “should’s” and by trusting the little steps in my larger journey. By trusting in my body and my inner knowing, and by doing what comes naturally. Enjoying the chaos, embodying freedom, allowing for my creativity to spill out of me—outside of any lines or bounds.

I came across this brilliant quote last night, “Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life” and that really resonated with me. So, I invite all of you to bring forth your vision for 2024. Choose a word that embodies the spark of inspiration that comes from within, and let’s go live.

Please comment with your word so we can see how our intentions weave together in the collective. It’s always so incredible to see how our chosen words echo each other.

ON HOLIDAY

Discussion about this post