122 | Small Things that Matter, Courage, & A New Song
Hello beautiful humans,
I.
It's been a challenging mental day today. No particular reason or things made it this way. There are just a lot of challenges I'm facing right now and things I'm taking action on to change my life and better myself that are hard and take a lot of energy. In light of being in a tough season, I'm just a little tender today.
As I went to write today's letter, I noticed someone unsubscribed from the letter. I don't know who. I never look at who subscribes or unsubscribes or concern myself with those details. I just see the total number of subscribers change. People actually unsubscribe every week, and honestly, it's never bothered me until tonight. Why tonight? Because of what I shared above; because I'm feeling a little down today and a little more vulnerable. And that's okay, because I'm brining an awareness to the situation and not giving much stock to the thoughts in my head that say writing these letters don't matter. That thought is just a wave passing through. It's not true. The thought isn't me.
So I press on to honor the things in my heart asking to exist, like writing letters and sharing my thoughts, because at my core, I know it's something I want to do, and I believe it is an act of love, a small way to be of service, a small way to express myself and be creative, and experience has taught me, small things matter.
II.
Last week I had the pleasure of hearing Diana Nyad speak at the Outside Music & Film Festival. I had not heard of her until recently when I caught a trailer for a film made about her life, which I definitely have to see now!
If you're unfamiliar with Diana, she swam 110 miles from Cuba to Florida (the only person ever to do so) at age 64. AGE 64! This was after four failed attempts. My goodness. Hearing her tell the tale of her life and this swim on stage was beyond inspiring. You can hear a bit of this story from her TED Talk.
In her talk, she referenced the well known FDR quote about being in the arena, but a way she paraphrased the latter part of the quote stuck to my heart like glue. She said,
"I’d rather be in the stadium, than the cold timid soul on the sidelines."
It wasn't just the image of being on the sidelines that got to me, but being a cold timid soul on the sidelines. Something about that felt so sad and defeating, and to think, the only thing standing between that reality and one of being in the arena are the choices we make, each day.
As Annie Dillard said, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." And how we spend our days is one choice at a time, to choose the arena, day by day, and be fiery, courageous souls.
II.
I'm so excited to share with you that I have a new song coming out next week! It is called "We Can Begin Again", and it releases this Friday, June 14.
The song is very simple with the phrase "We Can Begin Again" as the lyrics. I hope it holds space for people to feel into seasons of change and new beginnings.
I'm also releasing an "In Conversation" track with the song that's like a mini-podcast or commentary where I talk a little about the album art and the song.
I'll be sending out an email June 14th on release day, but if you're on Spotify, you can pre-save the song and follow me at this link to have the song automatically go to your "Release Radar" playlist. You can also pre-save or pre-order on Apple Music/iTunes. Excited for you to hear it!
Onward,
Shel
