My inspiration this holiday season is the beautiful letter written by Friar Giovanni Giocondo, about how joy, beauty, and wonder are here within our grasp – if we look. “Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.” The more I look, the more I see to appreciate. The poem is called Within Our Reach: Joy. Thank you Gratefulness team for sharing this beautiful letter.

Genuine curiosity is opening up a deeper sense of connection for me as I realize we’re also connected by our hopes and our struggles. I was amazed at the outpouring from my conversation partners. We’re hungry to be really listened to, to be heard. What a comfort to know we’re not alone.

What’s becoming beautifully clear is that my own spiral, and this beautiful constellation of connection, is infinite. An infinite space of love, of belonging, of connection.

Coffee cup in hand,
I take the first sip — Ah! I smile
In the morning quiet.

With eyes full of love
He tells me I’m beautiful
My heart overflows

Desert Sunrise
Cactus swells with yellow bloom
Sweet perfume of Spring.

Wholeheartedness to me is whole-being-ness; bringing not just my heart, but my living, breathing, thinking, feeling Self to the world at the present moment. To be wholehearted is to know and trust my Self, to bring it all, not just what is expected. That is easy for me to type and much harder to do in my real life! Wholeheartedness brings space, openness, and possibilities where before there was constriction.