Last week, we talked about Hope coming from that untouched, virginal part of us.  Possibility born out of not knowing, out of seeing pure potential ahead, unbound by the past, wide open and inviting — how that SPARKLES…

There are riches too, though, in embracing all the grit and complication of our personal and shared history.  Not relegating it as a mere memory to be dropped or gotten over, but also something to own, heroically, as exactly everything that it took to get us to this point.

Owning the past and fully inhabiting the present as we consciously create the future.

What do we see when we look back?  How do we carry it?  Because how we view and carry our past is a big part of how we will know ourselves going forward.

I can’t wait to be with you this Sunday, December 31, at 10:00am at Maple Street Dance Space.  With the divine Patty Stephens.  XO, Drew

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MY PRAYER FOR 2024

I open my heart and mind to the new year.  
That’s not always easy because some of ‘em pack a wallop.  
This past one has.  But I’m still upright, dammit.  
So — call it defiance or hope or just plain stubbornness—
I open, bruises and all, to everything that’s brought me this far.

With gratitude, too, because for sure there’ve been some lovely bits
that want remembering, demand celebration, deserve to be definitive.  
Come on down to the forefront, sweet friendship, bringing all that we’ve shared,
good food, good books, good ideas, walks and dances, ecstasy, song,
snuggling animals, words, imagination, collaboration.  
Be my life already.  Already, and also newly blooming.

I open to these glorious worlds I am. Pouring through me
like sunlight, and molten metal, and baking powder, like Time.  
The Ever-loving Everything I am, we are.

And from the dazzling galactic whirl of this and that and all of it,
of what could be and what should be, and what we might make
if we gave ourselves half a chance, I choose.  
I choose this coming year to be:

Out-loud belly laughs.  I can’t stop because it’s hilarious being together
with people who make life delightful.

Powerful, graceful, flexible bodies.  Sexy, mighty, lithe miracles
that know how to heal and do so.  Stronger, more nimble, more vibrant every day.

Our luminous intelligences connecting with compassion and ingenuity,
finding fresh ways to light up the world and to care for each other.

Thrilling adventures into mind-blowing wonder and growth
(but maybe without so many tests of fortitude).

Love, courage, forgiveness, and patience (again without the testing).

Days full of energy and vision, and nights of effortless rest.

The spark and sparkle of things wild, audacious, interesting, and honest.

It’s not too much to ask, not too much to declare, not too much to be.  
There’s nothing in the way of any of this — nothing real, anyway — all of this, and more.  
So I leap into it with bright eyed devotion and bushy tailed faith.  

And my active gratitude awakens the thing itself, with a life of its own — ours.
I allow it, I receive it, I embrace it, I love and live it.
Welcome, beautiful 2024.

And so it is.

© 2023 Drew Groves