Dear Otea:

I don't know how I'm feeling about the end of the year and beginning of the new! Anxiety, hope, fear, love. I know we don't know or can't know what will come, but it all feels so scary—almost chaotic—right now. What's a peaceful path forward through the raging unknowns?

Cara Mia:

Your peace through the raging unknown begins and ends with the only person you’ve always known: you, and you, alone. That you already awaits this you all the way on the other side of this scary, hopeful, chaotic year ahead. Conjure this self from spirit into solid, twelve whole months and so many lifetimes from right now, patiently awaiting your own arrival at their timeworn table. Their steady hands on the cloth that covers it, freckled from 365 more sunrises. The curve of their spine where they’ve borne whatever the weight. The lift of their chin where they’ve caught every light. A new map of lines carved in their still familiar face where they’ve laughed and cried with abandon over moments they’ve already made that you’ve not yet met. When you look this person in the eye, you will turn the fear of your fate into the inheritance of your fortune.


You will always be known to yourself. You will always prevail. Your love moves forward and forever onwards, onwards, onwards. There is no other way. So start on your way towards the you that is already rising to meet you.


Un abbraccio forte,

Otea