What about when you lose your wings?

I love December. I love the lights, the music, the trees and making all the cookies. I love the quiet anticipation of the season and all it brings. I was stringing a few lights in my room to bring in some cheer, when I noticed the angel that I keep nearby had her wings by her side.

I turned the angel over and saw this:

The metaphor is so clear and far-reaching. So many right now are about to make a change, a pivot, because they know something is missing. If you didn’t know this was an angel, you may have thought this figurine was damaged or broken — but in that instant I saw why we appear so confused when we are looking for answers that exist below our potential. Meaning, you could silly putty or paint over this to cover up the whole. Or you can just reattach her wings.

Are you using your wings?

They’re waiting for you.

You know, I have a soft spot for Fitzgerald because I love Hemingway. I had this great epoch in college where I read Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and tried to decipher Joyce. I was able to sit and saturate myself in the minds of these writers. For me, Hemingway still delivers the best dialogue staccato, ever. In fact as I type this, I wonder if I should begin to read The Sun Also Rises, again. The first time I read it was in college. The second time I read it was while I was getting my Masters in Education. I was slightly disenchanted with a class I was taking, so I brought Hemingway to class and I read him to keep myself motivated by what books and the written word can do.

I digress. Back to Fitzgerald, I was reading This Side of Paradise my last semester of college. I remember the room I was in and that the air conditioning was too high. My skin was stuck to my seat because I was in shorts. I was also sitting by the door, which indicated my excitement about graduating and an impending trip to Northern Ireland, because I habitually choose a seat in the middle or near the window my whole career. I have always loved books and words, since I was young, so I was all in as an English Major at a then small, and beloved liberal arts program where I knew all of my teacher’s personally. For whatever reason that I can no longer recall, I read the end of the book in class, sitting near the door.

I remember the words washing over me and realizing they encapsulated college and all that probably was in front of me: “I know myself . . . but that is all.”

A sentiment we can spend our whole lives exploring, and if we arrive there. We did it. We got it. We found the prize - our selves, our eternal nature, the one that beams not matter what the circumstances are.

So this December, as we move through the next few weeks, check in with her, the you of it all and be certain that you know where she is guiding you and what she needs to take flight. As Fitzgerald remind us, “it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be who you want to be.”

Fly,

Kate

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A tip: Did you know that meditation increases your serotonin? That quieting your mind can do more for unwinding the negative talk then a positive affirmation. You want to know why? You need to clear out or make some space in the subconscious, so a new thought pattern can take place.

If you want to try it with a little help, check out The Everyday Meditation Method (on sale for $45 to help you through the holy-daze), a self-pace practice with 4 weeks of meditations, a weekly journal, and some some pep talks and explanations to keep you going. Because it’s hard to pattern change alone or even reapply your own wings.

You know that moving your body and meditation go hand in hand? You have to loosen up to let go, whether you are writing or baking or simply looking at what you want to make of the new year, that is ever so quietly tapping you on the shoulder. So move, move mindfully and get ready to fly. “I hope you see things that startle you,” from Fitzgerald and me.