Monthly Archives: December 2025

This Ancient Melody

Posted on by
4

One hundred and fifteen days ago, I began a journey to find my way back to centre. My husband’s health was deteriorating and I was fighting embracing becoming a full-time caregiver. Everyday I struggled to navigate the jagged edges of a life I chose which now also contained so many unexpected notes of becoming something I never imagined being to the man I love. To avoid playing a discordant rhythm, I had to learn the keys of tenderness, compassion, and love, by rote, so that whatever each day may bring, I sing a song of joy. Which is why I chose to write a love poem a day for a year -to create a new song of love and joy that encompassed it all.

In my struggle to learn this new melody, the ‘critter’ and I have fought over sharps and flats. We’ve wrestled with who controls the beat and what tempo to play every day. With grace and patience, the sage within has held her silence, knowing that until I released my need for control, I would never hear her urgings to accet the peace of surrender. She is wise this sage woman within. She knows that until I embrace what each moment brings, I’ll never experience the joy of Being. Here. Now.

Slowly, with practice, I am finding the quiet between each note and discovering that the “constant din” softens when I listen into the hum of presence that is constantly playing bass to the refrain of Love I seek. I am learning to let the “bones” of this song of joy we sing, together, to be the ancient melody I play – and in its presence, I am free to stop trying to write music that no one can hear above the cacophony of the noise of my heart trying to find its beat drowns out its harmony.

To my sage within, who I have often ignored, thank you for guiding me back to the truth. To the sea that caresses the shores of hope and opens my mind to possibilities, thank you for sharing your ebb and flow. And to you, who have walked these many days with me:

May you find your own hearth. May you hear the voice of your own Sage. And may you too embrace the inexplicable joy of discovering, the song in your heart is the home of your dreams.

The ink is dry, the bones have appeared, and the circle is unbroken. Through writing a love poem a day for the past 115 days, I have moved from fighting the wind to dancing with it. I have shifted from silencing the music of the wind to setting myself free to live each day singing a song of joy, no matter what blows in through the windows opened wine. What a miracle! All of it!

May this season of love, light and joy bring you great tidings of comfort and joy and miracles for all!

A Song for Every Child
by Louise Gallagher

Look up!
A star shines bright
this winter’s night
and angels sing
of every child’s birthright

Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.
Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.

Sing Loud!
Let our voices be strong
Let our hands correct the world’s many wrongs
So that every child may one day hear
No guns, no hatred, and have nothing to fear.

Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.
Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.
Rejoice!
put down your arms of destruction
and take up the tools of construction
let’s build a world where all can be
kind, caring, loving and free.

Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.
Peace. Hope. Love and Joy.

____________________________________

To listen to the poem as a Christmas song, I asked an AI assistant to provide a musical score and voice. Listen to it HERE.

Claiming my Birthright. 72 My Way!

Posted on by
6
My birthday photo today. 72 and I get to choose to not wear make-up!

Another year around the sun, and the emotions are a chaotic, beautiful mess. Joy and weariness co-exist. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? Today, I claim my birthright: unadulterated self-celebration.

Birthdays are a moment of necessary, guilt-free narcissism. We get to hit pause and declare: This is all about me.

But this year’s number – 72 – is different. Seventy-one was the year I finally got clear. I stopped tiptoeing around other people’s visions for my life and stepped fully into my own power. I shed the fear of upsetting someone else’s apple cart and chose to claim ‘the more’ I truly want.

It was a challenging year. We weathered my husband’s health storms, navigating travel with his oxygen and wheelchairs. Yet, I found myself more confident than ever, able to right my own boat in any sea. It was a year of profound firsts: traveling to Europe, (the continent where I spent most of my formative years) with my youngest daughter, discovering Malta (and Maltese hospitality! wow!), and even living on an island.

More than any of those adventures, this past year I finally put down the metaphorical knife I used to fend off intruders to my personal space. I don’t need defense; I need declaration. I claimed my space. Unequivocally.

Here’s to aging, not worrying about whether it’s “graceful” or “fierce.”

Here’s to claiming the right to do it however I damn well please.

Make Time for the Sacred: The Technology Battle is Over (and I Won)

Posted on by
2

There’s only one way to spell ‘frustration,’ but I’ve invented a thousand ways to express it.

For the past week, As I’ve been creating my Make Time for the Sacred Winter Solstice Reflections. I’ve been fighting an epic, soul-crushing war against my laptop.

FRUSTRATION doesn’t cover it. That word is too polite. I was operating on a level of digital rage that involved a primal urge to launch my computer into the Pacific Ocean, or at least see what happened if I put the whole thing in the microwave.

(And yes, I know, it’s not the laptop’s fault. User error is a pandemic whenever I dive into new software. We are all just primates trying to manage a universe of wires.)

But here’s the brutal truth about perseverance: It works.

I was determined to get this course online before Advent started. I missed that deadline by four days and approximately 70 hours of lost sleep, but I PERSEVERED. The kinks are gone, the demons are exorcised, and the tech finally listens.

My course is officially ready.

The Invitation (Where You Come In)

Humans are fascinating creatures: we create complex tools, and then we struggle to use them. This Solstice reflection is a necessary pause from that struggle.

The Make Time for the Sacred Reflections is a beautiful, FREE way to prepare your heart for the return of the light.

Here is exactly what you get when you sign up:

  • Four Weekly Reflections: Delivered right to your inbox, running from now until the Epiphany on January 6th.
  • Flexible Access: Each week includes both a written option (to read and journal) and an audio option (for listening on the go).
  • A Sacred Pause: A simple, guided way to reconnect and reflect during the most chaotic season of the year.
  • And Bonus content — 4 questions to deepen your experience to prompt journalling should you choose.
  • A weekly meditation posted every Friday for your to savour over the weekend and into the following week.

This free gift ends January 6th. Release the procrastination. Get your pause now.