Summer in September

A Special Time

I really love this time of year in Michigan!

Mike and I took friends out for amazing sailing trips this past weekend, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, and it’s fun being back in the stands for the Hope College Soccer games, 💙🧡

Clean air and casual dinners on our front porch make for perfect evenings, I love having open windows and (sometimes) adding a layer, and I’m looking forward to our first Solo Stove night on the back deck.  ​

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“We don’t have to pretend to be fine when we are not.
We don’t need to push through and be strong,
Gratitude is a soft landing place that requires us to be honest, open, and willing to look at everything we're facing and not turn away.”

~ Alex Elle

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Hello!

How is your week going? 

If you’ve been reading these letters lately, you may notice my curiosity around, and my exploration into, softening. 

Softening into the space within. 
Quieting all things from the external in order to listen and to observe. 
Because, each moment, each breath, is the practice. 

The day to day rituals, tasks, responsibilities, of life are indeed what it is all about. 

That’s why I love today’s quotation. 

I can tell I need more time with it. 

“Gratitude is a soft landing place.”

I like the sound of that. 

Can I enhance that in my moment to moment movement through life?

That said, it’s the next part that really intrigues me:

“Gratitude is a soft landing place that requires us to be honest, open, and willing to look at everything we’re facing and not look away.”

I’ve never thought of gratitude requiring anything from us, and I’m super curious about this concept. The requirements identified here have some intensity . . . “to be honest, open, and willing to look at everything we are facing and not look away.”

And then I am reminded that gratitude is a “soft landing place.” 

So maybe this honesty, this openness, this willingness to look at everything? 
Is not something that’s hard if we come at it from a place of gratitude. 

I’m going to pause here. And breathe this in some more. 
I’m curious to see where it takes me.  
Softening deeper into gratitude sounds really good about now. 

Care to join me?

With light & love,

m

P.S. Speaking of joining me . . . Fall Equinox will be here before we know it! 
Please join me and Teresa Van Eyk to celebrate this change of seasons. 
Sunday, September 21 | 4:00 - 5:30 @ Oval Beach