Happy Monday! We have a little over four months to go until the end of the year. My birthday is next month and it kicks off several rituals and reflections that I do each year. I am curious about my end of the year reflection post because each month has been so different. I don’t know what is defining this year for me? Perhaps the defining theme this year is love?

All I want to do is talk about love. I’m not in love with anyone, but I am in love with my life and the essence of who I am. On the flip of all this, I keep thinking about the at-risk teens that I work with through the arts therapy program Awaken Arts. The last time I saw the kids, I told them “Adults struggle in adulthood as a result of their childhood and teen years.” I keep thinking about the truth of that statement and it’s starting to weigh on me.

Throughout my life, I have seen pain and suffering everywhere and silently watched people hide their pain as a child, teen and young adult. I can not do it anymore. I lead my life with love, it pulls me to help people heal and is the source of my words (both spoken and written). We need to let love be the source of our lives and our words, so that we don’t struggle to receive it from others and so we don’t harm others when we speak from our hurt and our pain. We must lead with love if we are going to make it as a people.