Looking back from where we are now…
December 23, 2024
I love this time of year, when the reflections start rolling in. All the Wrapped and Best Of lists, giving us a bird’s eye view of the path we took over the last 12 months. It feels like we’re completing a journey and coming in for a brief landing before beginning our next trip around the sun. Looking back from this space provides us with a different perspective from the one we’re typically immersed in, inviting us to compare where we started the year to where we are now.
Unless you spent 2024 meditating in a cave, you probably had a pretty intense year. For me personally, in addition to the collective whirlwind of chaos we’re all dealing with, there were some fairly big challenges. Looking back though, I’m realizing that most of them led to changes I did not see coming, but which wound up being (in some way or other), exactly what I needed.
Thankfully, in addition to challenges, this past year was also filled with phenomenally fun times with old and new friends, beautiful experiences of vulnerability and true connection, and lots and lots of laughter. Many of you were a part of that, and I’m so grateful for you.
One of the most profound gifts of my life is this work that I somehow found my way to, which continues to surprise and amaze me. It allows me to connect from the core of who I am to the core of who you all are, which is all I’ve ever truly wanted, when I think about it.
Together, we’re learning to tune in to a deeper understanding of who we are. And from this new level of awareness, we’re able to show up more fully for ourselves and for one another.
I have no doubt that 2025 is going to require us to show up even more fully and resiliently than ever before, in order to meet the challenges ahead. But I also feel the momentum of this time we’re in now building and swirling around us, sweeping away the old, decaying structures of what isn’t working and forcing us into a new, more conscious, aliveness.
I hope that 2024 brought you many positive changes, and that there were untold gifts hidden within your challenges. Most of all, I hope that as you look back, you have a sense of having healed some of the old wounds and stepped a bit more fully into an awareness of the infinite creative potential of your true Self.
If the answer to that is yes, keep going.
If not, 2025 is your chance.
And if you need a little creative inspiration, here’s one of my favorite finds from 2024, Gary Hustwit’s brilliant generative documentary on Brian Eno. Each iteration of the film is unique and different from the last, and if you’re anything like me, it will absolutely get your creative juices flowing. It seems extra appropriate to share this as we wrap up 2024, as it will be streaming worldwide for the first time on Jan. 24th, for 24 hrs, for $24. If you check it out, let me know what you think!
May 2025 bring the fulfillment of your wildest dreams (and some that are even better than anything you’ve dreamt up yet).
Wishing you the happiest of holidays,
Shelby