The new beginnings that come with spring are a balm to my senses every year, which is why I’m out on my bike in the mornings still training for the 5 Borough Bike Tour—I did my first 25 mile ride this Saturday! Riding feels like flying, and I am suffused with bird song. There’s a stirring of possibility in the air with the morning so fresh and new you want to take a bite out of it!
I love the feeling of new growth, but the death part of the death and rebirth cycle of Winter to Spring is just as important. What can I let wither and die in my life?
Self-doubt is the first thing that pops to mind followed closely by imposter syndrome, the feeling that you don’t deserve a bigger life (because you don’t have enough degrees or mastery). So, you don’t even try to stretch for more.
Well, I say poppycock to that and the Doomsday Oracle that lives in my head trying to keep me safe and small to avoid the pain of rejection.
Instead of “Who are you to do that? What do you have to offer?“, I’m trying out the thought, “Why not me?“ I’m letting that judgy risk-averse part of me wither and die from lack of attention and nourishment, because it no longer serves me. Staying small and cloistered no longer works with my goal to live a long healthy life, spreading cheeky cheer and common sense to an increasingly nonsensical world.
This came up in my latest Letter from Love (a concept designed by Liz Gilbert that involves a writing prompt to compose a letter from the Spirit of Unconditional Love to you). I know it sounds weird, but I have had the most surprisingly beautiful letters from Love that make me feel more hopeful every time I write one.
This week’s letter sparked this blog. Here’s an excerpt: “We would all be well served to remember that each new beginning follows an ending of something that is no longer desired or has outlived its usefulness. And that’s what we see for your playing small and safe and eschewing the world of people out there who may need your help. Your sense of humor and inner sight about the pain of others is your superpower, don’t discount that! It truly is a gift and you'd best start treating it as such. You are made for service to yourself and other wolf babies, and that is an honorable calling. It’s about time you accept it and get to helping!”
Who am I to ignore edicts from Unconditional Love? If you’d like to try it out, pop on over to Liz Gilbert’s Letters from Love Substack and write one of your own. It has re-awakened my creativity and re-ignited my desire to write to you, dear reader. I hope you feel a sense of possibility with each new blog, because that’s what I feel knowing we are connected through the ether!
XO
Terri
