Hello my loves,

As 2021 makes like 2020 all over again, the world’s current bouquet of stridently held viewpoints has surged forth into my orbit. Quite frankly, it’s been rather exhausting. There’s so much information available, and with lockdown time on one’s hands, it’s tempting to dip a toe in and try to make sense of it all. But here’s the thing. There is no making sense of it right now. We’re in the middle of a pandemic on a scale that hasn’t been seen in a century. No one, not you, not me, and not the leaders of the world, really knows how to best deal with it. We’re all just doing the best we can on a daily basis, and making the decisions that feel right to us with the information we have available. For now, that’s all we can do.

Tracking the minutiae of each unfolding day isn’t going to change how this goes: none of us are in control of that. The coming days, weeks and months will unfold as they unfold, and there’s no one on earth who can tell you what they’ll look like. But there is a great power in this equation, and that is the power you have to create your own reality. To put down the phone, tune out of the noise, and go instead deep within. Ask yourself how you can make the best of each day, and then do just that, dropping the guff that you know doesn’t serve you.

For me, the answer is to protect my emotional state, so that I can truly enjoy the simple pleasures that light me up. This means tuning the hell out of the tsunami of information, opinions and predictions that I could access at the touch of a finger. And don’t even get me started on social media - I haven’t been there in a year and there is not one thing I miss about it. I need mental clarity. I need emotional space. I need to calm the f-down and focus on what’s real for me. That’s what I have to work with: the rest is well and truly beyond my control.

And so, I do the best I can to focus my days on the things I know truly speak to me. Sure, I have to work, and that’s totally fine. But I also have the choice every single day to devote some time to something that makes my heart truly happy. For me, it’s super simple: cooking (of course!), gardening, knitting, walking, playing stick-chase with my cats on the lawn. And writing to you of course, which is one of the great pleasures of every week. Your personal set of self-connection peccadillos might look completely different: it doesn’t matter what they are (although I can tell you that Facebook isn’t one of them). What matters is that you make the time for them. Tune out of the noise, tune into your heart, and do what makes you happy. In an overwhelming world, that’s your superpower. Create your own blissful reality to the best of your ability every day, and every day will be a little more lovely.

And so my darlings, I’m sailing into my weekend with a plethora of choices as to how I’ll spend it. Each morning I’ll ask myself what I’d like best from the options available to me, and that’s what I’ll do. I wish you an equally free heart, and a beautiful weekend and week ahead.

Love , Rachel xxx