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"You are not the work you do; you are the person you are."
–Toni Morrison

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5 quick things –
Photo of two smiling women (Liza to the left and her daughter to the right) standing in front of a bright yellow traffic sign that says

Hi kind and beautiful human,

How are you? How is your heart? đź’“(I ask my daughter that second question a lot. I find that the answer to the second question is often far more detailed than the first.)

Do you ever have a stretch of time where everything is so awry that you keep looking up "is mercury in retrograde?" and "is it a full moon?" but astrologically everything seems fine so you know it's just you? Ha! Maybe I am the only one that does that.

Anyways, this week has been full of relatively minor but unsettling events, incuding an electrical fire at home (see fire safety tips below) and a nine-hour flight delay that included five hours stranded on a plane on the runway. Everything and everyone is fine, but it's one of those weeks that's like.... uh.... is this week still going?!

It's during weeks like this that I find it especially helpful to lean into my meditation practice. Not reading about it, or theorizing about it, or teaching it, but just... butt on the cushion. Sit, stay. I think of this as "meditation so easy a dog can do it." But also sometimes it actually feels like the hardest thing in the world. If you're also feeling busy or overwhelmed, maybe you can just sit and stay for a bit, too. :) 

    Okay, here are your 5 things for this week. âŹ¬

    FOR YOUR PRACTICE
    1. holiday stress busters / feel the love

    Fresh new free guided meditation video for you: a 15-minute loving-kindness, or metta meditation, practice. If you haven't done this practice before, give it a try! It's super powerful.

    My latest on Thrive: 5 One-Minute Practices to Relieve Holiday Stress.

    👆🏽Keep this one in your back pocket over the next week! It was inspired by that infamous Ram Dass quote: "If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family." Remember: the real practice happens off of the meditation cushion and in real life.

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    BIG-TIME PRACTICE BOOST
    2. 31 Days of Devotion

    Ready to up your meditation practice?

    My friend Adreanna Limbach is offering her much-loved online course called 31 Days of Devotion for the fifth year in a row–and get this: the whole thing is free.

    People love it–because it's awesome! I'll be joining six other meditation teachers to offer daily videos about things like intention setting, developing compassion, and finding clarity.

    Learn more and sign up for the free course here.

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    STAY SAFE
    3. fire tips 🔥🧯💨

    I mentioned that we had a small electrical fire this week–and we were very lucky that we were home when it happened so the furniture in front of the plug that caught fire didn't also catch! It took a couple of days to figure out what caused the fire, but it appears that it was the surge protector itself that caused the fire. WTF.

    Turns out the positive and negative ends inside the surge protector were touching, which can happen over time. (Uhhhh this is not cool.) So now we'll be replacing all of our surge protectors with new ones and buying some extra smoke detectors while we are at it. Maybe you should consider doing this, too?

    Here are some other holiday safety fire tips. Stay safe, friends!

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    NOW WATCHING
    4. Toni Morrison documentary

    I learned so much from the new documentary, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. I felt deeply inspired and will definitely rewatch it. It was so cool to learn more about her (I knew she was a legendary writer; I did not know about her incredible other career) and to see so clearly how the paths she forged are so vital today. I highly recommend watching it! (Watch on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube.)

    Speaking of Mama Morrison, you may have heard the quote at the top of the newsletter (it's often misquoted and sometimes misattributed) but maybe you haven't read the article it came from? It's great and a little heartbreaking, like so much of her work: "The Work You Do, The Person You Are" in The New Yorker.

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    NOW READING
    5. cool reads you've shared

    I love that you share things with me that you find interesting! Here are some interesting reads you've sent my way lately: 

    ✨I hope your holidays are full of spaciousness; that you get the time to connect with your highest self, your deepest wishes, and your favorite people. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Joyous Kwanzaa. I'll be holding you in my heart until next week! âś¨

    Love,

    (No social media links this week, as I was pretty inactive online. What can I say, it was a weird one! đź¤·đźŹ»Hope you get some offline time, too.)

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    Liza Kindred

    This newsletter was written on the unceded land of the Seminole and Tequesta people. (Via Native Land.)

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