“This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life.”
As I rise into my 33rd year of life, I look back with deep gratitude for the people, experiences and lessons that have shaped me into who I am today. To be alive during this time of exciting change and transition is the ultimate gift that one could ask for.
Thank you Great Spirit for guiding me down the road less traveled. It is on this path that I have truly seen who I am and the strength I have within.
Thank you nature for supporting me in times of confusion and disconnection and for showing me that I am never alone. We are all interconnected through a cosmic web that offers constant support. All we need to do is trust.
Thank you to the souls that surround me in this lifetime. Those we call family and friends. It is neither the destination nor the journey that is of the greatest importance, but the company along the way.
Thank you for the continual life lessons, triggers and constraints that reveal to me where I am not yet free. May I have the awareness and the courage to face the shadows and fears that attempt to hold me back as I strive towards wholeness and liberation.
Thank you to my younger self for the limitless imagination and playfulness that is the fuel to my existence. Thank you for the things you went through so I may stand here today.
Thank you to my future self for the constant guidance, protection and assurance that everything will be okay. Thank you for being strong enough to soften deeper into the flow of life. Thank you for trusting enough to let go. Thank you for being religiously devoted to being you.
Thank you to my travels around the world that have grounded and humbled me in ways that I didn’t think possible. Thank you for showing me that humans are more alike than different. More connected than separated. Thank you for showing me that the natural state of people is goodness, generosity and love.
Thank you to my mind, my ego, for creating whatever programs, stories and beliefs were necessary to keep me safe when I was unaware. I am now aware and I release you from taking the lead. The heart is now in charge.
Thank you to my heart for bearing unbelievable amounts of pressure and grief. Thank you for protecting yourself and closing off instead of breaking. We don’t need to close anymore. Thank you for choosing to remain open as we move forward into deeper love and service, even when it doesn’t feel safe. Thank you for showing me what love is not in order to truly understand what love is.
Thank you to my body for your superhuman resilience and intelligence. I now listen to you and commit to treating you with love, dignity and respect. Thank you for being an incredibly strong vessel to hold more love, light and expansion. Thank you for never giving up even when everything else told us it was impossible.
Thank you to the wisdom of the sacred plants for being my muse, my guides and my medicine. Thank you for showing me who I really am and where I am settling in my life. Thank you for being compassionately firm with me and showing me where I am dimming my light and playing small.
Thank you to my creativity for showing me what fulfillments feels like. For showing me that creation will always be more powerful than destruction and that we are inherently creative beings. It is our nature to create. To push life forward through infinite forms of creation, expansion and innovation.
Thank you to the Sun for being my constant source of life. My stream of happiness and warmth. To be able to complete another trip around the Sun is the ultimate blessing and I am deeply grateful. Thank you for showing me that it is always darkest before the dawn, and the Sun will rise again.
Thank you to the darkness in my life. The shadows. The adversity. The pain and the suffering. Thank you a million times over. For it is in the darkness that deep wisdom is forged. And for that I am forever grateful. Thank you for refining and purifying how I show up in the world. Thank you for enhancing my ability to hold space for others, and to more deeply and clearly see my true self. Thank you darkness for being the fertile soil in which the blessings I am now experiencing could be grown and cultivated. You will forever be my greatest teacher.
Thank you to the light in my life. The knowledge, the love, the clarity and the knowing. The source that reminds me of this game of illusions that I chose to play. The source that brings me back to remembrance when I forget. And when I forget to remember, thank you again for helping me remember.
Thank you to my present self. For choosing to be here and now. Thank you for your steadiness and reliability. Thank you for your unwavering comfort and your perfect centeredness. The only permanence in an impermanent universe. Thank you for always being that subtle undercurrent of flowing peace, especially when I drift too far into the past or future. Thank you for the compass and the signals you send me when I have drifted too far, that thing we call intuition. I vow to do my very best to never ignore you again.
Thank you to my breath for being the bridge between my mind and my emotions. Thank you for giving me life. Thank you for grounding me deeper into embodiment and assisting me in integrating all parts of myself. Thank you for going with me wherever I go. My closest companion from birth to death. Thank you for filling me with possibility and for releasing all that no longer serves me.
And thank you to life. For this incredible fuckin experience of being human. For the opportunity to feel it all. To ride the waves of this Earth school and to fall deeper into laughter at the cosmic joke of this all. The excitement, the terror, the sadness, the elation, the grief, the anger, the isolation, the disappointment, the celebration, the ecstasy, the boredom, the confusion, the fear, the flow, the power, the exhaustion, the gratitude, the compassion, the judgement, the acceptance, the love, the disgust, the admiration, the awe, the anxiety, the surprise and the beauty of it all mixed together in one. Thank you for the opportunity to experience the colorfulness of life. Thank you for teaching me how to become a master in the art of living. I embrace and accept it all.
Cheers to the greatest year yet. 33 is the number of the master teacher. It signifies deep compassion, altruism, and a strong desire to serve others. I pray that this year is nothing less than that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
AND SO IT IS.
Talen