The Letter

Good morning gorgeous. I’m so happy to see you on our first Wednesday together of 2020. I know you probably expect me to talk a bit about goals this morning, or maybe a reflection on the past year or decade. I hate to disappoint, but I find the topic so overdone that it’s created a deep goal-weariness. I’m ready to talk about the opposite.

You see, New Years' goal setting is a bit addictive to personalities like mine. Maybe we're similar? I'm a do-er, I know exactly where I want to be, and I'm ready to fucking arrive already. I'm dream boarding, SMART goal setting, and manifesting all over the damn place. Let's fucking go. And we should do that.  Yes, it's necessary to mine our brains for desires and dreams and to put the plan in place to make them our realities.

But here's the thing we forget— lower scale numbers, higher bank account numbers, and a dope Linkedin profile do not equate to a well-lived life.
 

Alison Grenkie taught me a newly invented word— liberos, defined as the desire to care less about things—to loosen your grip on your life. To hold your life loosely and playfully like a volleyball. Isn't that beautiful? 
What would it feel like if you released a bit of the grip you have on your dreams?
Maybe it would feel like trust.
Trust in your work ethic.
Trust that you are on the path.
Trust that you are truly worthy of what you desire.
Trust that the things you seek are finding their way to you.
Trust that you don't have to do it alone. None of us do anything worth doing alone.

I think I know how that would feel because I'm trying to allow it to happen in my life too. Your jaw would unclench a little. You'd exhale a bit deeper. Sleep a little easier. Let a little light into the cracks of your life. Allow joy to accompany you on the path to your gorgeous destiny.

Because honey, the whole thing is just path. Let's hold each other's hands and skip a little, shall we? 

2020 is so 2003

While we were holed up in our blanket forts napping off eggnog and family-related anxiety, Trump was, uh, assassinating major military figures. We can’t take one rum nog nap without GOING TO WAR. 

*peeks through fingers* 

So what happened?

On June 3rd, Trump ordered a drone strike to kill Iranian military Qassim Suleiman, the popular leader of the Islamic Republic’s military apparatus. Like a high tea turned orgy, things escalated quickly. You might remember that Trump famously pulled out of the Obama era Iran nuclear agreement and has placed intense sanctions on Iran. Iran has responded with small attacks on US shipping containers, and larger strikes through proxies, like one that killed a US contractor in Iraq last week. 

Here’s where things go from finger sandwiches to body shots— instead of taking a proportional response to the strike, Trump chose the most aggressive move offered to him by the generals— killing Suleiman. A move both Bush and Obama had weighed and decided against, because of the potential for devastating consequences. 

It's already started. Last night Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqui military bases housing American troops.

This political misdirection is less sleight of hand and more sucker-punch to the face. Trump is distracting the American people from his impeachment and unpopularity by destabilizing global peace.

We don’t know what will happen next. What we do know is that war-mongering Bush-era pundits are out in full force to defend the President’s decisions and it’s nauseatingly nostalgic. 2020 is so 2003.

Oh 2003, a year where Sean-a-Paul was in every song and George Bush started a bullshit war that would kill over half a million people over razor-thin evidence. Sounds familiar… Christina Aguilera reminded us that we’re beautiful, and Donald Rumsfeld was saying that it was cool to not have an exit strategy from the conflict in Iraq. Trump said that. Justin Timberlake wanted Britney Spears to cry him a river, like a river the world cries every time Karl Rove appears on Fox News.

Dozens of Iranian-Americans are being denied and questioned at the border. If you can vote in the U.S, do that. You can check if you're registered here. If you can't, you can still donate to the Unify or Die fund that will go to whoever wins the Democratic Primary. Our best chance to beat Trump is to fire his ass.

Something to make you laugh
The essential question: do you have a toddler or are you at burning man?

Something that's so 2003
Allow Evanescence to WAKE YOU UP.

Something to help you remember that no one does anything worth doing alone
Phoebe Waller-Bridge dedicating her BAFTA to Jenny (and hornets).

Something you can do
Here's how to help the Australia wildfires. Right now.

Something to get you through
With every act of self-care, your authentic self gets stronger, and the critical fearful mind gets weaker. Every act of self-care is a powerful declaration: I am on my side; each day I am more and more on my own side.
— Susan Weiss Berry

Thank you for coming by today. If you have a project, life update, birthday, celebration, or thought to share with this community, please do reply and let me know. I want to connect with you more and share more of your light with the rest of the community this year. Shout your successes and I'll shout them back.

If you know someone's voice you want to hear here, tell me about them and send me their contact information.

Until next week my dear.

Love,
Sarah
@skstockdale

P.s If you have a spare moment to share this letter on Instagram or Twitter, I'd be grateful for the help spreading the word. Come say hi anytime.