Takeaways

After taking a leaf from Dr Caroline Leaf – pun intended – in last week’s All Stitched Up! where we determined to finish the year in a more grateful, relaxed, slow and peaceful way, we continued to catch up on some of the emails we’d missed reading as they came through, and again we found ourselves so incredibly glad we did.

An email from Hannah Brencher saw her celebrating a milestone; ten years of her Monday Club emails. Each year Hannah marks the occasion with ‘a little birthday tradition where she blows out the metaphorical candles and reflects a bit on the last year’. As has become customary for many of her readers, they too treat the Monday Club birthday like it’s their birthday and take the chance to step back and savour what the last year held.

Whilst Hannah was contemplating her birthday, as we write this, the last issue of All Stitched Up! for 2023, we found ourselves somewhat contemplative as we deliberated on the year that has been. If we’re honest though, this contemplation usually revolves around what we did, or didn’t achieve as the case may be, and whilst there’s nothing wrong with marking the end of a year with such observations, they can sometimes leave us feeling ‘less than’ if we didn’t achieve as much as we’d set out to.

Hannah on the other hand chose a completely different measuring stick with which to look at the year that had been by asking one simple question.

It’s a far gentler way to measure the passing of time as no matter the answer, it allows us to step back and say, ‘Wow, I’ve learned and grown so much.’

Questions such as the one Hannah posed, invite us to ‘pause and survey our surroundings’ before moving onto the next and it’s the revelations we receive in moments like these that help us to shape a blueprint for success that will encourage us to move forward with a sense of purpose and fruitfulness.

So, we’d like to close the year with the words Hannah so eloquently stated in her email, ‘We know you might need to get to some more emails, or you might have tasks to check off your list, but if you’ve got a moment today, we’d love to hear from you. The question to reply with is simple: What is your biggest takeaway from this past year?’.

We can’t wait to receive your responses and will look to share some of your takeaways from 2023 when All Stitched Up! returns in 2024. Until then, we hope you enjoy many, many hours with needle and thread in hand…