The other night my dog Linus was sleeping at the foot of my bed and making soft grunting noises. To some people that would be disturbing, for me it is like sweet sounds that lull me to sleep.

Tis the season to be merry and bright. It is also the season that can bring to light difficult thoughts and feelings about life. The days are short and the nights longer in the northern hemisphere, it is a time of turning inward.

The change in the air at the beginning of September – after Labor Day in the US and the Bank Holiday here in the UK – that accompanies the falling leaves and the cooling temperatures. Fall always gets me thinking about the changing nature of living on this planet and I love the reminder to shed, to harvest, to alchemize the past, and to be present with how we have grown.

It has been a while. How are you all doing? My heart has been feeling tender and some days life feels overwhelming. It seems many of us are feeling the big shifts as we ride some choppy, uncertain waters and sometimes feeling lost at sea.

I know many of you are ready to say goodbye to 2020. It has been difficult, turbulent, chaotic and has activated so much. This year has been a roller coaster of emotions, some in fear and some in faith, definitely stirring up where we are long overdue for change on a deep core level. I also hold in my heart with empathy how painful and difficult 2020 has been, the loss of loved ones, jobs, our routines that ground us, and the familiar fabric that has held us together.