She Let Go

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A New Year Called 2023

Our world is organized into many cycles – timing, seasons, days, weeks and months and in January, we celebrate a calendar cycle, a new year called 2023.

Cycles are noted for their beginnings and endings.

In A Christmas Carol, The 11th Doctor commented with his usual sage advice:

Everything’s got to end sometime, otherwise, nothing would ever get started.

Now is our time for an ending.

A New Cycle

We’ve been writing here for 10 years and we are now cycling down that process. We’ve had periods of lots of writing, not much writing, and then bumping along the road with everyone else as we all attempted to manage the Covid pandemic.

Now, as we leave 2022 and enter 2023, it’s time to let go as we travel on to more life adventures.

No More Words

Sometimes, there comes a time when it feels like all the words have been said. As if there’s nothing new left to say. At a certain point, it doesn’t make sense to just keep repeating the words.

Silence sinks down. It’s not a dead silence; it’s filled with dynamism and movement, but not with words that are said ouloud.

Silence is alive in its potentiality of manifestation, yet it’s holding still for the moment. It’s right on the edge of a precipice of action, yet it’s as relaxed as if lying with eyes closed in a warm meadow in the valley.

Silence settles around us. We’re comfortable here. There’s simply nothing more to say.

And in that silence, here is a poem called She Let Go, by Reverend Safire Rose.

She Let Go

“Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of fear. She let go of the judgments.
She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.
She let go of the committee of indecision within her.
She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely,
without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a
book on how to let go… She didn’t search the scriptures.

She just let go.
She let go of all of the memories that held her back.
She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.
She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go.
She didn’t journal about it.
She didn’t write the projected date in her day-timer.
She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.
She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.

She just let go.
She didn’t analyse whether she should let go.
She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.
She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.
She didn’t call the prayer line.
She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.

No one was around when it happened.
There was no applause or congratulations.
No one thanked her or praised her.
No one noticed a thing.

Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.
There was no effort. There was no struggle.
It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.
It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her.
And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.”

A poem called She Let Go read aloud with soft music underneath it.

Cycles Of Life

Life is filled with cycles of beginning and ending. This website will be archived as I take a sabbatical from public teaching of The Radiance Technique®.

The Radiant Nursing Facebook page will also be archived and remain accessible. Scroll through the photos for hundreds of memes, quotes and ideas for inspiration as well as the many images of the Sun for Happy Sunday posts.

New adventures are calling, and off we must go. It’s time to don a fedora and discover the world.

If you want, you’re welcome to visit me on a new website and blog: LeslieAnneliese.com. It will be under construction for awhile. Check back for when it opens.

Thank you for being here over the years and sharing it all with me. What a journey we’ve had and I’m filled with gratitude for you.

In the meantime…

Be Wild.

Be Free.

Shine On.

Happy New Year 2021

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Out With 2020

Wow. It has been a year. A year of challenge for everyone.

The pandemic burst into our lives, marched into all our dwelling places and made itself at home, settling into every room of the house, as if it would never leave.

Loss Moved In

There was a great deal of loss. Loss of friends, family, and animals. Loss of homes, jobs, and income. While we struggled under the weight of the pandemic, any type of loss seemed even more intense, heart-aching, harder to bear.

There was a loss of vacation travel. On a more somber side, there was a loss of travel to see loved ones, family and friends. We missed holidays. birthdays, births or deaths. We felt the loss of being close together, a hand shake, a kiss on the cheek, a long hug.

We are picking ourselves up now. Everyone holds out hope for an end in sight. Perhaps the vaccines along with community exposure will lift enough of us into a sort of herd immunity.

Silver Lining For Other Creatures

While we lived in lock-down, the planet breathed a sign of relief while it had a break from our incessant activity and pounding on the Earth. In nature reserves, birds were able to relax and have the security to build nests, lay eggs and hatch their young. People were not trampling on their nesting grounds.

It makes one wonder if we couldn’t allow our national parks and nature reserves to have a month or two each year without any of us stomping through them.

Less air pollution was markedly visible above the cities worldwide. Water quality improved. In Venice alone, the lack of cruise ships promoted cleaner water. Noise pollution decreased. While not everything was perfect, poaching increased during the pandemic, we could perhaps look at what was beneficial and see how we could mimic that in normal conditions.

When lockdowns become less and our activities ramp up, we might find that we have less time for meditation. Yet, in such a strong environment of loss, past wounds of loss can open again and become tender. It’s important to remember that the time spent in our meditation is what nurtures us in our world of activity, bringing us more balance and awareness.

A Blessing for The New Year

Let’s welcome a blessing for the new year. What is a blessing? The dictionary defines it as:

– the act or words of a person who blesses:
– a special favor, mercy or benefit:
– a favor or gift bestowed by God, the invoking of
God’s favor upon a person:
– praise devotion, worship, grace said before a meal:
– approval or good wishes.

Another fun fact regarding the definition of the word blessing – whenever animals gather in groups, they are identified with a collective noun, like a pride of lions, a gaggle of geese, or a swarm of bees.

If you should ever stumble upon a group of unicorns, they are formally named… a blessing of unicorns.

As we say goodbye to 2020, we offer this blessing – a poem by John O’Donahue. Beannacht is the Gaelic word for blessing and currach is the word for boat.

Beannacht, by John O’Donahue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.


Be sure to take a few moments to listen to Mr. O’Donahue recite his poem. His voice and accent capture the wild, sea-whispering Celtic wind.

In With 2021

As we enter 2021, we lift our eyes to this new cycle and we’re filled with hope that this year will be softer and kinder. We invoke a well-known blessing of our own:

May the longtime Sun shine upon you and guide your way home.

Wishing you and yours a new year filled with healing and love. Stay safe. Stay healthy.

Happy New Year!

Ring Out Wild Bells

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Call Out To The Wild Sky

It’s time to say goodbye to 2019 and a big hello to our new year of 2020.

Ring Out, Wild Bells

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
   For those that here we see no more;
   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
   And ancient forms of party strife;
   Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
   Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1850)

Happy New Year 2020

As we speed around the Sun of our solar system, another year has passed.. Whirling, stumbling, whisking ourselves into a froth as we count down, and then count up, another year, another decade.

We humans like to count things. We like to measure and and delineate our hours and days. It helps us to feel organized and to make sense of a wide world without borders that looms before us.

The cosmos whirs on without a thought of numbers or counting. What is a year to the universe? Does the universe count its cycles? Maybe it measures things in a universal breath. How long is a breath-in and a breath-out in the deep, dark vastness of outer space?

Inhale. Exhale.

The Light In Our Hearts

Alfred Lord Tennyson, coming from his Victorian background, rings in Christ who represents the light. Whatever our religion or spiritual beliefs, we keep the light burning bright in our hearts as we welcome a new year and move into winter.

The Winter Solstice has passed.

Even in the dead of winter the days are slowly growing longer, carrying us forward into spring.

A little more light each day.

Let that light warm your heart along the way.




The Beauty Of Dawn

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The Quiet Beauty Of Dawn

Early to rise, the lingering darkness of night surrounds you. A faint lightening of the horizon tells you dawn is on its way.

A hush is felt with this awakening, you whisper so as not to disturb small creatures as they begin to stir. No need to holler or yell, anticipation tucks its paws under and quietly waits.

A Poem By Rumi

You're grateful to be awake so early this morning and even more pleased that you're up and outside already. This rarefied moment rolls within you as if the beginning of time is calling your name.

It brings to mind the poem by Rumi. You have no desire to go back to sleep. The words play silently on your lips. Don't go back to sleep. 

No, sleep is out of the question. Not because you can't, but because you don't want to sleep. Not now, not while you stand witness to an awakening.

Dawn Spills Across The Sky

Gathering momentum, dawn spills across the sky scattering pigments across miles of space. It's the promise of a sun that has come to warm us, to bring us to life.

A sun upon which we are utterly dependent. When the sun snuffs out, the Earth will expire with it.

Today, however, such thoughts are whisked away on threads of pink clouds and evaporate in a brightening sky.

Let’s lift our hearts in the wonder of our fragile existence and in the strength of our courage to face another day. For this day we have been given.

Let’s savor the gift.

Today is here. Today is now. Today we rejoice at another dawn.

Winter Solstice Poem

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“Mother of Air, Goddess of the limitless skies.
She is Owl Woman and will carry you through the long dark nights of winter dreaming.
The sun is reborn at winter solstice and days gradually lengthen.
A time of hope and anticipation.”
— Owl Woman artwork by Wendy Andrew

Winter Solstice Still

Still.
A slow breath, inhale.
Hold in the stillness of winter.
Even the Light becomes still in winter,
outer senses barely perceive it.
Embers of light smolder within our chest.
Our hearts, hollowed out,
make room for greater light.
A slow breath, exhale.
Flames leap to life.
Darkness is once again vanquished.

–Leslie Anneliese

From Darkness To Light

At the Solstice, the darkness of winter exerts its power and stakes its claim as the longest night of the year.

Yet, in the next breath, the darkness turns and starts a steady march to the shortest night of the year in summer.

Cycles of our lives. Our days. Our moments.

Hold on to the light. Spring is coming.

May your heart shine bright with peace and joy even in the darkness.

May your Winter Solstice be filled with expanding light, both within and without.