After what felt like the longest and possibly the most difficult year of my life, I am so grateful to be here in 2021 with you.
As the new year begins to unfold, I’m sitting with my hopes and dreams for 2021.
And this is what I keep landing on:
My prayer for 2021 is that we can begin to collectively embody the hard lessons we were asked to learn together in 2020.
In today’s Radical Reflection letter, I want to share four collective lessons I’m tuning into from last year, and my prayers for our integration of these truths in our own lives and in our businesses in this new year.
Lesson #1 – Our worth is not dependent on our productivity
With COVID-19, on-going presidential buffoonery, and social uprisings in response to police violence against black and brown bodies– 2020 offered each of us an opportunity to adjust our priorities.
At the beginning of the year, I know we all had big plans for a new decade, and now those plans look very different. And for most of us, 2020 looked less productive than we would have preferred, but I think it is really important to remember that our worth IS NOT dependent on our productivity.
If you didn’t meet all your goals from last year, or you ‘dropped the ball’ on your resolutions… you are still infinitely worthy of love, care, support, joy, and freedom.
This year, I hope we can embody that deep sense of worthiness in our relationships and in our businesses.
Lesson #2 – Boundaries and Consent are essential if our communities are going to thrive
Social distancing, masks, shelter-in-place and quarantine pods have taught me BIG lessons about boundaries and consent.
If we are going to be in community together in the age of COVID, then we need to be explicit about our boundaries, honest about our behaviors, and mindful of other folks’ requests. This is how we will build a culture that honors individual and collective well-being.
This year, I hope that we can honor and respect each other’s boundaries and cultivate a culture of consent.
Lesson #3 – Grief and rage can be sources of immense power
More than anything else, 2020 taught me that when we channel our collective grief and rage, we can move mountains.
We saw flashes of that collective power this year, when communities around the world protested against police brutality, and when the current US president was voted out of office (despite all his attempts to dismantle democracy).
We have a long way to go, but I’m hopeful that we can learn to work with these emotions in a healthy way.
This year, I hope we can continue to practice channeling our grief and rage (and joy, and pleasure, and love) so we can transform the systems of harm that are plaguing our communities.
Lesson #4 – We really are in this together
We’re learning the hard way that there is no escaping our interdependence…
No matter how much the dominant culture clutches at the illusion of independence and freedom.
But none of us will truly achieve liberation if our neighbors/cousins/friends/clients (and even our enemies) aren’t also getting free.
This is why we need health care for all, and why we need environmental reform, and why a robust social services for the vulnerable members in our communities.
If we are going to get free, we have to do it together.
This year, I hope that we can embody interdependence and find a way to build a culture that prioritizes freedom for all people, and justice for the Earth.
My commitment to you, and to my entire community, is that this year I will continue to practice learning and embodying these hard lessons, so I can show up as the most authentic, purpose-driven, healed version of myself…
I’m curious what lessons from 2020 are you integrating about life/business/culture building? And what are your intentions for embodying those lessons this year?
Love + Liberation
Lauren Elizabeth