High family, secrets. Family. This is just a note of thanks as we head into what is, for many of us, a time of year filled with contradictions. Love, joy, gratitude, grief, rage, confusion. Some or all of these might pay a visit. If we're spending time with family, that can be beautiful and also challenging. If we're not spending time with family, that can bring up other kinds of complexity. For many of us, our friends are our chosen family. Others are contending with
ailing parents, illness, divorce. But wherever we find ourselves, here are a few things I'm pretty sure about. And these are lessons I've learned from a lifetime of grappling with secrets, of being the secret, of writing about secrets, and creating a podcast about secrets. One there is nothing quite so powerful as being true to ourselves. Two. If we're true to ourselves, eventually we find ourselves surrounded by people who treat us with kindness. Three. Kindness winds every single time. Four.
As a wise woman recently told me, go where it's warm, she wasn't talking about the weather. Go where it's warm. Five. Locate your gut and trust it. I have never been led astray when I have followed my instincts. Six, you have to get quiet in order to feel and know what's right. Seven. There are many different kinds of secrets, but perhaps the most insidious are the secrets we keep
from ourselves. As I head off for the holiday myself, I just want to say that one of the great gifts in my life is having created this podcast and formed this extraordinary community. When I say family, secrets, family, I mean it. While I was on book tour for Signal Fires, I met many of you on the road. You came up to me and told me your stories. We laughed and we cried. We connected. And that connection, that feeling that we are none of us alone, if
only we allow ourselves to be seen. That is everything I love you. Stay safe and be well, and remember go where it's warm.