As we launch into our first (and may it be our last) COVID Christmas, I’m taking a moment to count my blessings, of which there are many. One that I want to highlight here is the launch of my counselling practice.

In a year where the only certainty has been uncertainty, I cannot express what a gift it has been to emerge from school trained and prepared to face this sort of unknown (thank you Naropa University for the adversity of my school experience and my Buddhist-inspired education).

I feel blessed with a skill set that has transferred so readily to the virtual world and that is so needed right now. As so many struggle with mental health challenges, exacerbated by the fear and isolation in our current environment, I feel grateful to be able to show up.

Not only has this work felt deeply meaningful to me, it has also provided a handrail and compelling purpose to keep me going on the days that have felt the hardest. When it has been hard to hold myself together, I’ve been inspired to go the extra mile to hold it together for my clients. In mid-March, I was living alone in a new town on the top floor of a high rise apartment building, reeling from a break-up. I had all the toilet paper I needed, and oatmeal and rice for days, but not much else. An extrovert to the core, I was having a hard go of it, and it was sessions with my clients that kept me on track and headed outdoors onto the trails. Showing up for them also helped me to show up for me. So to my clients, my neighbours, my family, my friends and all the strangers suffering differently and together this year, I thank you.

It’s been a tough year folks. But through service, and so much more, I have been blessed.

May you too, find blessings in the pain. May you find freedom from suffering. And may 2021 be different.

With extra love this COVID Christmas,

Heather