you are loved (and a giveaway)

Woke up this morning with a strong need to tell you (yes you) this:

I know sometimes joy might feel far away.

I know sometimes it might feel like people don't get it, don't get you.

I know sometimes the loneliness can feel tangible.

I know sometimes love feels confusing or even a bit lost in the midst of everything else.

I know sometimes the twirling, swirling thoughts take over even when you are trying to find the quiet spaces.

I know because this is my life too sometimes.

Today,
I want to invite you to take five deep breaths
and trust that you
(yes you)
are deeply loved.

***

(locket available in the shop)

This is my favorite soul mantra to hammer into lockets because I know the power of these words, of hearing them, wearing them, of having someone hand you a gift that says these words. So you know. So you trust. So you can hold onto the truth that you are loved.

Today, I'm giving away four of these "You Are Loved" Soul Mantra lockets to four different people.

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment sharing who you would give one of these lockets to if you could. Be sure to put your email address in the email address box so that I can contact you. The giveaway closes Sunday evening, and I will announce the winners here in this post Monday morning.

Giveaway Winners:

I decided to giveaway 8 lockets because I was so moved by this entire experience. A new post about all of this coming soon, but here are the winners below:

Steve who wrote about giving it to his wife
Ashley who wrote about giving it to her friend
Alicia who wrote about giving it to her 18-year-old daughter
Missy K who wrote about giving it to her friend
Angie who wrote about giving it to her sister
Anita who wrote about giving it to her niece
BethAnn who wrote about giving it to her daughter
Crystal who wrote about giving it to her best friend

Please check your email as you should have a note waiting from me. Thank you!

Thank you for sharing your light with the world,
Liz

PS Working away on the new ecourse. Here is a peek.

can you choose love today?

It didn’t go the way you planned
(this day, this moment,
this month, this time in your life)

Can you still choose love?

You weren’t your best self
(your ego was in charge
you got caught up
in envy
popularity
silliness
simply wanting to be liked)

Can you still choose love?

You said things you didn’t mean
(or didn’t even understand
or didn’t even realize
because you were so caught up in the old stories)

Can you still choose love?

You have a tight grasp on what was
(you feel lost
disappointed
forgotten)

Can you still choose love?

You miss a piece of who you used to be
(you’ve tried to hide
or pretend you haven’t noticed
or stuffed the feelings down so very deep)

Can you still choose love?

Today
here
this moment
Can
you
choose
love?

I know it’s hard sometimes
I know the push and pull of life can feel heavy
I know the roles you move in and out of stack up
I know you thought being an adult would be easier
I know you have so many stories inside you

I know
Oh honey
I know

Today, I make a choice
one I’ve made many times
one that can still feel hard
Today,
I walk down the hall
stand in front of the mirror
close my eyes
one breath
then another
then another
then two more
and then I open my eyes and say,
I love you

Join me
Choose love today
Yes

***

I often read my posts aloud once before posting. When I did this today, these words felt like a powerful declaration. So I pressed record in case you need to hear them too. Just click "choose love" below to listen. You can also right-click and save.

(And for love notes like this one in your inbox, sign up for my (almost) weekly newsletter here.)

choose love

trying to soften into the truth

When I posted this photo on Instagram over the weekend, I added a comment that said, "today feels hard. trying to just soften into that truth." It had been a hard day. And I was deeply missing my friends and family. I took this photo because I wanted to be seen. I took this photo because I needed to just let someone else know that I was having a hard day. And I was surrounded by love on Instagram. And I admit that I really needed it.

Sometimes I just don't know what to do with social media. I am sometimes mystified by what people choose to say or share. As we get closer to the election, my patience and kindness is tested by the words that appear in my various feeds. 

But then I am just so deeply moved by all the love that is there. By the kindness. By the way people circle around each other...when storms come, when tears fall, when grief arrives, when joy appears.

We just keep finding our way, don't we?

Life feels sharp at times. Or maybe it is my own edges that feel sharp. I want to invite in more ease, so I am working with this image of softening into the truths that make up the moments over here. Working with the word "soft" just feels right. It seems to be kindreds with "let it be" and "surrender." It makes me think of these lines from "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

Yes. This.

Opening up to the softness and the love. This feels like the right path for this moment.

xoxo,

Liz

truth (write it)

write your truth . soul mantra locket

I'm sitting in my favorite Starbucks, the one with the big windows looking out on 6th avenue that seem to let in just the right amount of light to push me to write write write. We keep coming back here almost every Sunday because I am convinced this light is magic somehow.

As I eat bits of lemon poundcake and drink coffee because the air is wonderfully crisp today, I'm answering a few interview questions about why I do what I do. And in the midst of that, I'm reminded again that I come here to this silver box and write the truth so that I will know, so that perhaps you will know, that we are not alone.

Where do you write your truth? In a journal? On your blog? Through your photographs? Where does the truth come out in your world? Or does it feel trapped within you? Do you share it? Why? Why not?

Today, take a moment to think about what stories are waiting within you waiting to be told...and know that the next time you decide to put pen to the page that you are not alone. Just keep putting pen to the page and, as my friend Jen says, "Just be true."

Blessings,

Liz

1981

me and my dad . 1981

It was the year that changed everything. It was the year when my family went from three to four when my baby brother was born on a day in April. And a piece of my story is that I will never forget the way that both of my parents made sure that I always felt deeply loved.

In families there is always stuff.

(Always.)

I wish we would give ourselves more space to just know that this is true. We experienced stuff as children, and we create it now (even if we sometimes don't want to admit it). Every family has it, which is why I feel it is so important to share our stories so that we know we aren't the only ones.

And today, I was thinking about this stuff, and the truth that there is, for me, so often love in the midst of it all.

(Thank you for that.)

May you find your way to love today.

Blessings,

Liz