Dearest Loved Ones,

I was going to post my Christmas letter today- you know, the one many of you sent out, the one that says how well Siena is doing in preschool, how I gave birth to Owning Pink and finished writing two books. You know the letters, the ones that show our families coifed to perfection, that relate the triumphs of the year and the details our loved ones may have missed since the last Christmas letter. But as I read the Christmas letter I had written, I realized it didn’t really have any heart in it. It had details that my loved ones care about, but it didn’t really have ME in it. So I’m going to write this one instead- which is what I really want to say to all of you this Christmas.

Today, on Christmas Day, I realize there is nothing I need under the tree, no gift I’m anticipating when I unwrap the shiny paper, no longing waiting to be met. This Christmas, I have absolutely everything I need, want, and dream about. I have YOU. And really, YOU are the reason for the season.

Each one of you has touched my life in ways you can’t begin to know. I forget to tell you sometimes how blessed I feel that our paths have crossed. Whether you’re an old high school friend, a colleague, a family member, or a Pinkie, I feel so lucky to have you in my life.

I could tell you all the things my family has accomplished this year. I could fill in the story between the lines of what you might have missed, but do you really need to know the details? What if, instead, I tell you what my heart feels and sees this Christmas?

I see your beautiful Pink spirit shining through the masks we wear.

I see the authentic you, even if you’ve been trying to hide it from me. I love you just the way you are- I don’t need you to hide from me what you think I don’t want to see.

I see you as a joyous, radiant, beautiful, divine spirit embodied but not limited by the body that you inhabit. You are not how you look, what you’ve accomplished, or what you do. Every cell within you is LOVE. Everything else is just icing.

I see the healer within you, the superpower you may not even know you possess, the part of you that touches every person you meet from the heart, especially me.

You have reminded me that we must live for today, that we can’t put off joy until tomorrow. This moment is the only one that actually exists, and in this moment, we are whole and there is peace.

Because of you, I am more ME. Because we have touched each other’s lives, we have a sacred contract, one that helps both of us grow. Even if we have had challenges together, we are fundamentally different people for having known each other. We are evolution in action.

Knowing you has changed me this year. I spent much of my life walking around, sleeping. You have helped awaken me, and this is better than any gift that could fit under my Christmas tree.

You have made me feel SEEN, for the first time in my life. Because you are in my life, I no longer feel invisible. I feel cracked wide open. I thought it would hurt to be that vulnerable, but what I have discovered this year is that I FEEL EVERYTHING more. And it’s worth it.

On this Christmas day, I send you a gift too enormous to fit under any tree.

I send you LOVE with my wide open heart. I need nothing in return, for it is the very joy of opening my heart and letting you in that has changed my life.

May 2010 be filled with blessings and peace and may you know- always- that you are exactly perfect, completely whole, and ENOUGH, just the way you are.

With a deep bow of gratitude,

Lissa