Sometimes it can feel like no one can really see you or hear you or know you, but that is such a lie. We all have struggles and fear and pain, places where we’re raw and unfinished. We all have doubt and uncertainty and times we think it’s hopeless. You’re never alone. This is not an easy gig. We’re born into this thing and left to make sense of it on our own. There are people with big answers who stand on hills and rooftops and tell you how it is. But they don’t know for sure, and you need to know they don’t. No one knows for sure. I think it’s a big, gorgeous, heartbreaking mystery. It is a wilderness, and sometimes there’s a clearing full of colors you never could have imagined that takes your breath away and makes you fall to your knees in wonder and gratitude. And sometimes you turn the corner and are swept into a hurricane with no warning, no protection, and nothing to hang onto. Except those few people who DO know you. Who DO see you and understand and care. Those people who would walk right into the middle of that hurricane and grab you by the hand and yell,”This way!!” over their shoulder as they pull you forward. You can do that for people you don’t know, too. This stuff is in our DNA, we are hard-wired to care about each other and to want to lend a hand or an ear or a shoulder.

Connection is where it’s at. Love is the thing. That’s what you make that has value and is lasting. It’s an energy and my belief is we are all made of that energy. It’s not going to die. The question is, how much of it will you open to and explore? How much are you going to allow your heart to expand? How willing are you to lay yourself bare, to expose your soft heart and your vulnerability and your unanswered questions? You can do this journey in isolation, but I think you’ll feel pretty awful. It’s lonely enough even with close friends and a tight community of people who are also walking forward, through shimmering fields and merciless storms and joy and heartbreak and seriously? Could it ever be about stuff? About a car or a house or what size jeans you’re in? Could that really be the point of it all? I don’t have all the answers, but I can tell you for sure it’s not about that. Or most of the stuff we obsess about. Love the people in your life with everything you’ve got for as long as you’ve got. Love people you don’t know, too, because they are also in this thing, trying to figure it out. Some people are hard to love. They are having the toughest time in this wilderness. Maybe they’re trying to do it alone, or clinging to big answers ferociously because they need something to hang on to. Love them. They need it. Don’t let a single day go by when you don’t let the people you love know exactly why you love them. Because honestly, that’s a day well spent. And if you string a whole bunch of those together, that’s a life well-lived. That’s all I’ve got for you that I can guarantee will lead to a life filled with purpose and meaning. Love your heart out and amaze yourself with the sacredness of that experience. Sending you a huge hug and a ton of love right now, Ally