…Of Gentle Awakening
There’s something different and soft about this month that it feels almost sacred. Because for the first time in a long while, I’ve been waking up with a calm mind. I don’t wake up feeling like I’m already behind before the day even begins. When my eyes peel open, I breathe in the cold morning air and just sit with myself unpressured. Just gratitude folding itself around me like a warm blanket.
I guess it’s the shift into a new month or the slow approach of Christmas. But whatever it may be, I am gently anticipating the new year as fresh pages are waiting to be written.
I don’t mean to brag but over the past few days, I’ve realized that I have the real luxuries in life. And I used to think that the real luxuries were having an expensive couch, or trendy clothes, or a high paying job. Don’t get it twisted, these are all beautiful things but my luxuries are not this screamy, instead, what I have seems more valuable. This month made me realize I have time, which I now appreciate more than ever and use wisely to pause, exhale, and to reflect on the positive aspects of life.
Health too is golden and my body has been carrying me without complaint. A quiet mind; I mean you get this kind of stillness but you don’t notice until you’ve fought through storms.
Slow mornings. My mornings now feel like the clouds. Like beginnings where nothing demands too much of me. Rest without guilt is also an underrated luxury, and it’s one I am learning to accept without apology.
Good sleep too. I can’t emphasize enough. Good sleep nowadays feels like a miracle. Also, the ability to have or hold meaningful conversations. Conversations that open you up and ground you at the same time. There’s home-cooked meals, my mom literally is the best chef and that’s comfort in edible form. I have people I love, and people who genuinely love me back.
These are the blessings I’ve been counting lately because this December, inner peace found me. And it didn’t feel like a sudden wave, it felt like God placed it in my hands gently. And I’ve chosen to carry it with care, noticing how it follows me into each morning, how it settles in my thoughts and reflects in the way I breathe.
I haven’t decorated my room or put up a Christmas tree or hung anything festive. But strangely, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. The season is decorating me instead with contentment, gratitude and lightness.
This year, I really feel the Christmas air wrapping itself around my heart. The excitement is subtle, but it’s there, real and pretty much enough.
And to you, reading this,
I wish you the same peace, and the same soft magic that has found me.
May December keep being kind to you.