Temple to Radiate

All going well here – I’ve been in therapy all year and I’m about to end it (because it has been so effective!), but that’s where I poured a lot of my confessional energy. I write all the time still, but as often as not it is in my journal app or in a series of random notebooks I keep buying and filling with nothing and everything. Anyhow, I have a wee warm lassie snuggled in my lap (I’ve placed the Macbook on top of her – she doesn’t seem to mind). My feet are enveloped by a silky snoozy beagle. The boys are sleeping – at the beginning of their two weeks of blissful winter break mornings. The Prof is making Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, the tree is lit, gas fireplace too. Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and mine.

My theme word of the year for 2024 was “temple.” I took this seriously and made great strides on every aspect of it – as the linked post notes, it had several meanings. My body is a temple: I attended physical therapy to work on my back and nerve issues, which helped a lot; I discovered that my belly issues were the result of contracting H. pylori, and had that cleared up through a pretty rigorous antibiotics regimen; joined a Pilates studio on top of my weight lift training and I’m as strong and flexible and well as I’ve ever been. Between my two temples is a brain: weekly therapy, tweaking and perfecting meds, working my way through Gretchen Rubin’s happiness project all year has legitimately made a difference in my anxiety and emotional wellness. I go to a temple weekly for spiritual wholeness. I do love my church. I’ll never be an evangelical – I don’t care what any of the rest of ya’ll do vis a vis religion – but I can’t say enough about the particular church in which we are active, the particular group of people. Our broader church body is socially liberal – The Gays are welcome! We have a non-binary member of staff, a transgender young adult leader, and both mingle with the rich genteel Southern old ladies and gentlemen who are pretty personally conservative in their dress, manners, and votes, but don’t bat an eyelash because this is New Orleans. Speaking of, we have plenty of conservative folk in our congregation, too – Elders who ask to lead discussion groups on Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro, rich folks who vote Republican for the taxes, white men who fought against the addition of maternity leave for our staff as being too woke (I won that fight – ha!). We are community, we disagree with affection and occasional emotion, but we keep showing up and choosing community again and again. In a time of great division, we choose cohesion. Buildings. I have planned a trip to Italy for November 2025. Gonna see some temples in the “flesh” soon.

My one-word theme for 2025 is radiate. My visual for that is a star or sun with rays, but I also occasionally picture an octopus with 8 helping arms. I want to take this stability and health that I purposefully cultivated in 2024, and use my newfound sturdiness to extend myself in service of others. I want to radiate goodness and assistance out into the community – to be a source of light and lightness. That sounds kinda woo but I mean it in a practical way – volunteering time and talent, donating money, building connections and relationships. Below is a pic of the planner and notebook I bought for this year, with theme in mind.

Well, the Muppet Family Christmas just came on tv and I can’t hear myself think over the sound of my husband laughing so loud every time a muppet slips on the icy patch at grandma’s house. So, time to go! Hope to type to you sooner rather than later!