💬 Sunday Reflections #55 (goodbye / hello)

Postcards from Peru, see you 2nd Jan 2025 and the December round-up

Hi! This is Leyla from A Day Well Spent, a newsletter seeking pathways to more purposeful living.

Goodbye 2024, hello 2025 🎆

Greetings from the foot of Machu Picchu in Peru.

I am currently sitting in a café in a town called Aguas Calientes that serves as the gateway to this sacred Incan site, luxuriating in my first schedule free day for over a week (Lima, the Amazon rainforest, very high altitudes — it’s been intense!) and making the most of good WIFI.

So I thought I’d drop by and check in with you all as we approach the end of the year.

I spent yesterday hiking to Machu Pichhu. Yesterday was also the Summer Solstice in the southern hemisphere. The timing was an unintended but fortuitous coincidence and I feel it’s been significant for me.

Yesterday morning and at every other Summer Solstice for the past ~600 years, the first rays of the sunrise passed directly through Inti Punku, or the ‘Sun Gate’ — an imposing stone gateway that serves as the main entrance to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley of the Incas — allowing the sun's rays to enter the city and bless it with life-giving power.

This perfect alignment of the Sun and the gate happens just once a year, on the Summer Solstice.

The Incas designed the gate in this way because they believed the Sun was a powerful god that gave life to all things. My sentiments towards the Sun are similar.

I gave my thanks and while doing so, I made a new friend.

Postcards from my time in Peru so far, further down.

Welcome to Sunday Reflections ☕

For new subscribers welcome to Sunday Reflections, our twice monthly gathering. This is our intimate and friendly space for community and accountability. And the last (or first) Sunday of the month is always a juicy one.

How it works

On two Sundays each month I pose a prompt or question which we discuss (and say hi) in the comments.

Topics tend to cover self-empowerment and personal growth and these regular check-ins allow us to share our wisdoms and get to know ourselves and the other members of the A Day Well Spent community better.

Feel free to have a browse through previous Sunday Reflections to get an idea of the stuff we talk about.

Before we begin, the December round-up

In case you missed them, here are all my published pieces from this month in one handy list.

And a reminder: we are now in guest writer season here on A Day Well Spent, where for a few weeks while I’m on the road, I am publishing some brilliant columns from guest writers.

I will still be down in the comments for each piece and I’ll also continue checking in with you all with our usual Sunday Reflections for us to ponder over.

I hope to see you in both!

1. Why we need intergenerational friendships

About what hanging out with people in a very different age bracket to our own does to us and our lives. A guest column.

Why we need intergenerational friendships

2. The 2024 round-up ✏️

I rounded up my 2024 columns — all with the common themes of self-empowerment, personal fulfilment and growth, and ways of slow and sustainable living — sorted into the overarching energies of The Mind, The Body and The Spirit.

Please enjoy dipping into whatever takes your fancy, re-reading some favourites or catching up on any columns you might have missed.

The 2024 round-up ✏️

3. 'Here they will see and experience the best of humanity'

Sicilian community kitchen founder, Jamie Oliver's former right-hand man and dolphin spirit, Danny McCubbin, answers 15 quickfire questions

'Here they will see and experience the best of humanity'

4. End of year rituals

We shared the rituals we like to do towards the end of the year.

💬 Sunday Reflections #54 (December rituals)

This time last year

Here are the pieces I published in January last year you might also enjoy this coming month:

• How to slow down the passing of time

• In defence of alcohol

• How to make natural wall paint (from potatoes!)

• January's nature, food and captured thoughts

• Sunday Reflections: discomfort and fear, WOTY

A big WELCOME to new community members

Should you join this community and leave a message when doing so, it would be a lovely thing to read and I’ll be sure to share it in these monthly round-ups.

To

Irene Kim (김애린)

and all the other new members who have joined this month, welcome!

Sunday is for awakening the mind, body and spirit 🧘

Now let’s begin.

Today’s topic: goodbye 2024, hello 2025