LETTERS FROM LOVE — With Special Guests Lizzy, Callie, Barb, and Lennnie!
Lift up your wings
Dear Lovelets,
Over the last few years, whenever I sit in meditation and ask for guidance from Unconditional Love, I’ve been getting a fairly constant repeat of this message: Just stop whatever you’re doing and make art.
REALLY?
That seems highly irresponsible, doesn’t it?
On the other hand, let’s break this down . . .
To start with: what is it I am usually “doing”?
Well, at any given moment in the day, I am usually worrying, trying to control things, trying to fix everything, trying to hold it all together, trying to make people think or act differently than they want to think or act, trying to get my way, trying to achieve something.
Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if I stopped all that, and just made art.
But seriously, though? Just make ART? When the world is in so much trouble, danger, and need? Shouldn’t I be doing more to change things?!
Yet when I look around at so many of the people I love — and so many of the people from whom I take direction and inspiration — it seems that everyone is stopping whatever they are doing lately and just making art.
Glennon Doyle is making abstract paintings in her cottage. Rob Bell is drawing pictures of spaceships all over old boards and planks in his garage. Margaret is taking photos of the rain patterns through her windshield. Lewis Howes is salsa dancing. Kemi Nekvapil is growing peonies and drawing roses in journals. Behida Dolic is freezing flowers into ice, and photographing them. Suleika Jaouad is producing giant paintings of her medication-induced fever dreams. Rachel Cargle is turning “making a beautiful home” into an act of political defiance. Martha Beck is cranking out amazing watercolors by the HUNDREDS.
Is it possible that we are all hearing the same call?
Is it possible that the world would be a better place if everyone stopped whatever they were doing and just made art?
Last summer, deeply troubled by the sorrows of the world — and anticipating that the upcoming election season might bring great despair to many people — I stopped everything I was doing, and decided to make art through the form of a song. I love to sing, but I’m not a musician. So I gathered together two of the most talented musicians I know — Callie Miles and Barb Morrison, both previous Letters From Love special guests! — and we made art together. On a few hot days in July, we joined creative forces and wrote a hymn of love and comfort that we thought people might really need this holiday season.
And then, together, we sang it.
And then we brought the song to the mysterious anonymous force of Internet love named Lennnie (also a Letters from Love special guest alum!) and asked them to animate it and make it into a video. And they eagerly agreed. And now we are giving it to you.
So here you go, my loves — we made you a song.
We made you a song because we love you.
We made you a song because we couldn’t help ourselves.
Can making art fix everything, or anything? I don’t know.
All I know is that spending a few days creating this music with two people I love was the highlight of my summer. And giving it to all of you as a gift is the highlight of my winter.
As I said to Barb and Callie when we were finished recording the song, “Two days ago, this song didn’t exist, and now it does. How does that even happen?”
It happens because we all three had the audacity to stop whatever we were doing and make art.
Happy holidays to every single one of you dear beloved Lovelets. Thank you for sharing your worlds with us, your words with us, and your love with us.
You are our gift.
Let’s keep creating. Let’s keep lifting up our wings.
WE LOVE YOU,
The Snow Angel 🪽 Support Team
Lizzy, Callie, Barb, Lennnie, and Margaret
Prompt
This week, I ask that you join me in reflecting on what we can contribute to a world that seems suffused with suffering. What’s the thing you do or create or put out there that makes others light up? What have you secretly been wanting to try (even if you think you’re no “good” at it)? How can you add beauty to your world? Maybe your answer is culinary, or something intangible, maybe it takes the form of time spent with someone — or a gift that keeps on giving, like Kemi’s peonies. This week, let’s ask: Dear Love, what can I offer to a world that is in pain?
My friends, you already know all these people, because everyone involved with creating this song already wrote a letter from Love in the last year! But just to review: Barb Morrison is a platinum record producer and Top 5 Billboard songwriter; Callie Miles is a nineteen-year-old powerhouse singer, songwriter, visual artist, college student, and fellow super-sensitive Cancerian; Lennnie the Blob is a small animated being, created by nobody-knows-who, who spends their life bringing messages of love and encouragement to millions of Internet strangers around the world.
(And by the way: if any of you want to stop whatever you are doing and make music, Barb Morrison has an incredible music mentorship program, where they will work with you to find, release, create, and record the music that is within you. I can’t recommend it highly enough. You can find out more at their website.)
Here we go! I hope you enjoy Snow Angel as much as we loved creating it for you —
SNOW ANGEL
Snow angel, lift up your wings
Sing for the ones who can’t hear you sing
Sing for the ones who won’t make it through
This winter bring us some beauty
Snow angel, hope feels so far
The dreams we once dreamed can’t save us at all
Quiet our longings, settle our needs
This winter, bring us some beauty
Another year gone, another will come
I will stay by your side till the dark days are gone
When the night tells you lies
I will sing you your own lullaby
Snow angel, comfort the lost
Remember the grieving
Remember the cost
So much is gone, but love still remains
This winter bring us some beauty
Snow angel, lift up your wings
Sing for the ones who can’t hear you sing
Sing for the ones who won’t make it through
This winter bring us some beauty.
Little one, little one
The world’s not your home
I will stay by your side till the dark days are gone
When the night tells you lies
I will sing you your own lullaby
Somehow, my friends, this song we imagined last summer IS an actual thing in the world, and as of today you can stream Snow Angel HERE on Spotify any time you like!
❤️LG
Hello, Lovelets!
I’m new here—or at least new to participating! I’ve been reading Lizzy’s Letters since the very beginning, but now I’m excited to officially join the Lovelets Community. I can’t wait to dive into all the beautiful Voices of Love by reading your letters and sharing this journey together.
By the way, my 3-year-old daughter, Zahara, already recognizes Lizzy’s voice! Whenever she hears it, she she asks, “Mami, is that Lizzy?” I think she might just be your youngest Lovelet sister.
Thank you, Lizzy, for today’s Letter from Love. As usual, it means a lot to me…! I feel the Love in each of your letters and I feel inspired to leap into this shared space of vulnerability, connection and love by sharing a letter of my own. I wrote it last Friday, and it’s about asking Love for guidance through a painful experience. Here it is:
***
Dear Love,
I feel hurt and wounded today. Can you help me through this pain?
***
Darling-Love, what hurts you?
You feel hurt by how someone in your extended family—your brother-in-law—spoke about you. His words cut deep, belittling you as a person, dismissing your artistry as a poet, and ridiculing the way your relationship with your child’s father ended. He invalidated you in front of your sister, reducing your life to his perspective.
Darling, I know this hurts.
It hurts even though you understand that his words are a reflection of the battles he wages inside himself. They stem from his own anger and inner struggles. You know that and still it hurts. His judgments feel like sharp arrows being sent to you; like an attack on your worth. I understand. We get it.
But hear me now, Love:
You are not defined by his words or his wounds.
Come closer, my dear. Let us begin to take out the arrows of hurt lodged in your heart.
1. You are a poet—a beautiful one.
Your poetry is not an accident or a mistake. You were created with that gift of weaving light and meaning through words and more than that to see the world with the eyes of a poet. Trust your longing to express and share your poetry that has lived in you for so long. Love your poetry, my darling. Love your life as poetry.
2. Where you are in life is exactly where you need to be.
Sweetheart, you’ve always done your best, and that is more than enough. We could not ask more of you. In fact, my Love, we invite you to stop striving so hard and instead try softer. Your best is not something you must force; it’s already within you.
You can list so much in terms of your worldly accomplishments: academic excellence, scholarships, three simultaneous master’s programs in two countries, a stellar professional record, a diplomatic career,... It is tempting to concentrate on that. And yet, Sweet One, your Soul didn’t come to this earth just for the earth and its worldly success. You’ve felt this, haven’t you? That quiet longing to step back, to pause, to reconnect with the deeper calling of your soul that brought you into human form in the first place. You’ve done that, my Love. And that takes incredible courage.
3. You are guided, always.
Darling-Dear, Precious One, even when it’s hard to trust what cannot be seen, remember that the same divine flow that brought you here is carrying you forward. Life may seem to run contrary to your heart, but what if the world’s “mainstream” is not the true current of life?
Look closer, look deeper: so many people live out of sync with themselves, resisting the natural stream of their soul. That’s why they suffer needlessly, why joy feels so far away.
My dear, continue to be brave and follow the law of your own soul. Like Thoreau and the kindred spirits you’ve always loved, you are seeking out the beat of your own drums. As you continue to tune in, you will find that rhythm grows clearer and steadier, no matter the world’s noise.
Darling Love, follow your soul’s longing. It brought you here. It brought you to this life. Little One, always remember that within you, you carry The Great.
4. Your past relationship was not a failure—it was an act of growth.
Leaving it was an act of love: love for yourself, love for your child, and love for the truth, and even love for the person you left. Relationships are complex, and sometimes the greatest gift we can give is the freedom to walk away.
Remember, Love: you are not defined by a single relationship, nor is your life’s purpose tied to finding “the one.” Your Soul’s calling is far greater. Even those who hurt you—yes, even your brother-in-law—are unwittingly shaping your path, like breadcrumbs leading you closer to your own fulfillment.
Darling Love, how do you feel now?
Can you feel the weight lifting, the space opening in your heart? The sharp arrows of judgment and insult have been softened, transformed. In their place, we’ve poured Love, Courage, and Light.
The wounds have become openings—portals through which your Soul’s light can shine even brighter. So go on, Sweet One. Breathe deeply and live open-heartedly. Trust in this beautiful, mysterious journey called life.
With all Our Love
Beautiful moving song and video!!
THANK YOU!!!
I am so sad and confused and weak and empowered and scared and hopeful and grieving and… mostly scared.
I’ve been diagnosed with “metastatic disease“ a.k.a. stage four cancer. I have not been feeling sick! this is very unexpected and very quick! This diagnosis has pulled the rug out from under me and it’s been a very very hard week or so. They want to do a full body scan tomorrow to hopefully see maybe where it started or maybe where it’s spread or maybe that it hasn’t spread. I just want to tell you guys because I got such love and support from you and I could use some! I could really use something comforting. I was supposed to be getting a puppy from my daughter in February. The puppies were just born the day after Thanksgiving, and she shared a lot of video with me of that, absolutely beautiful loving process. I was so overwhelmed and so scared that I won’t even be here in February or less have anything to give to a dog. I don’t know! And I’m trying to be helpful and I’m trying to just let be be meeting trying not to fight all of these thoughts. I’ve never considered myself a fearful or negative person, but the brains gonna do what it does.
Dear love, what can I do to bring beauty to a world that suffering? This. Spend time with me. Write what you think. You haven’t been able to write one word or even read and I understand and I’m not expecting you to be perfect and I’m not expecting you to understand everything , and I’m not expecting you to be happy about it. But you can come to me. And you can remember that you do have something to give! Thank you Lilli for reminding me of that! Even in your fear of weakness to come, you are still love! You are love. And you are light. Don’t hide the light love and take care of yourself except everything that feels right to accept from anyone who offers it. Keep believing in the future and keep living in the present. Diana I think that’s all you can take right now. And that’s OK, you don’t have to prove anything you don’t have to produce anything you really don’t. I sent that eagle in the tree right there for you. You can spread beauty by excepting love. I love you.