| Beginning today, Valentine’s Day, we launch a monthly offering, entitled, Love Letter to Self. Each month through the end of the calendar year, is an invitation to write a brief love letter to yourself, celebrating you. I invite you into a gentle practice of turning inward with care, curiosity, and kindness. This is an invitation to loving, appreciating, and tending the self, not as a project to fix, but as a relationship to nurture over time, knowing that we are each deeply interconnected to one another. Perhaps the most radical act of love is to meet ourselves without performance, judgment, or abandonment. In a culture that often rewards self-criticism and relentless striving, choosing kindness toward oneself can feel unfamiliar, even undeserved. Many of us have learned to measure our worth through productivity, performance, or how well we hold things together for others. Over time, this can create a quiet distance from ourselves. We keep moving. We keep giving. We postpone listening. The inner voice grows faint, not because it has nothing to say, but because it has learned it will not be heard. A love letter to self is not an exercise in self-indulgence. It is an act of truth telling. It asks us to name where we are weary, where we are longing, and where we have been brave without acknowledgment. It invites us to speak to ourselves with the same generosity we often extend outward, recognizing that tenderness and accountability can coexist. Writing or reflecting in this way does not erase responsibility or hardship. Instead, it creates a ground sturdy enough to hold both. When we soften toward ourselves, we become more honest about our limits. When we honor our own humanity, we are less likely to demand perfection from others. Love directed inward becomes a quiet source of steadiness that shapes how we move through the world. In this season often associated with love, we might consider what it means to include ourselves in that circle of our own belonging. To offer patience where there has been pressure. To allow rest where there has been constant effort. To recognize that self-respect is not something we earn after meeting expectations, but something we practice in real time. A love letter to self does not need to be eloquent. It needs to be sincere. It can begin with a simple acknowledgment: This is where I am. This is what I am carrying. This is what I need right now. From that place, clarity emerges. Trust deepens. Compassion becomes less abstract and more embodied. Perhaps the invitation this month is not to become someone new, but to befriend who we already are. To listen more carefully. To speak more gently. To remember that tending the inner life is not separate from tending the world, but one of the ways we learn to remain present, generous, and whole. Join me for these upcoming events. Space is limited.  Opening Heart 2026 Annual Retreat: Open Heart, Peaceful Mind: A Retreat for Renewal & Social Engagement Seekers Church, Washington, DC Friday, January 23 • 5:00pm—8:30pm EST Saturday, January 24 • 9:30am—4:30pm EST This annual Opening Heart Mindfulness Community retreat, offered in person and online, invites you to slow down, reconnect, and renew your capacity to meet the world with an open heart. Guided by Dharma teacher Valerie Brown, we’ll practice sitting, walking, eating, and resting in the Plum Village tradition, listen to Dharma talks, and share in a caring, diverse community committed to healing and social engagement. Beginning with a relaxed potluck on Friday and continuing with a full day of practice on Saturday, this retreat provides space for grounding, clarity, and meaningful connection so you can return to your life with renewed understanding and purpose. More details and register: https://www.openingheartmindfu…  Reclaiming Rest: Nourishing Practices to Renew and Restore Body, Mind, and Spirit March 1 @ 12:00 pm – March 8 @ 1:00 pm EST Wallingford, PA, just outside Philadelphia, PA Many of us are stretched thin by constant demands and the belief that rest must be earned. This retreat offers space to step out of overwork and reconnect with practices that restore balance, ease, and purpose. Drawing on the Plum Village tradition, teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh and Parker Palmer, and the Courage & Renewal® approach, participants will explore burnout, the role of rest in peacemaking and social justice, and ways to realign with core values. Through mindful rest, embodied practices, and reflective dialogue, you’ll learn simple, practical tools to renew your energy and move through life with greater clarity. More details and register: https://pendlehill.org/events/new-years-open-heart-peaceful-mind-a-retreat-for-rest-reflection/  THE MEASURE OF OUR HUMANITY: Actualizing Compassionate Action in These Tangled Times – TRANSFORMATION with Valerie Brown March 29, 2026 | By Donation Online Program Transformation invites us to slow down and meet ourselves and one another with care. In this online offering, Valerie Brown explores transformation as a relational and embodied practice, reflecting on moral worth and how values such as inclusion, belonging, dignity, justice, and courage are expressed through everyday choices. Through contemplation, reflection, and shared presence, participants are invited to reconnect with what truly matters and consider how inner change can guide compassionate action in the world. More details and register: https://valeriebrown.us/events…  Pilgrimage to Silence: A Nature-Based Retreat for Rest & Renewal Onsite at Hollyhock Retreat Center, Cortes Island, British Columbia Program begins May 17 at 6:30pm | Program ends May 22 at 1:30pm Book now and receive 10 percent off accommodation prices. Offer valid until February 15, 2026. This silent, nature-based retreat offers a peaceful space to slow down, breathe, and restore. Surrounded by Hollyhock’s forests and ocean, you’ll step away from daily noise and reconnect through Plum Village mindfulness, Quaker practice, and Courage & Renewal principles. With noble silence, time in nature, and guided meditation, this retreat supports healing, clarity, and renewed alignment with what matters most. More details and register: https://pendlehill.org/events/new-years-open-heart-peaceful-mind-a-retreat-for-rest-reflection/  Geography of Change SOLD OUT AND WAITLISTED A Forest Retreat for Navigating Life Transitions with Valerie Brown On Campus | In Person May 29-31, 2026 Ben Lomond Quaker Retreat Center, Santa Cruz Mountains, Northern California Life transitions often ask us to slow down and listen more carefully to what is unfolding within us. Set among the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains, this in-person retreat invites you to pause, reconnect with what matters most, and meet change with greater presence and care. Through embodied, contemplative, and creative practices, we will explore how inner clarity and self-trust can guide meaningful action during times of uncertainty. More details and register: https://valeriebrown.us/events…  Awakened Action What Blooms in the Ashes In Person & Online November 13–15, 2026 A gathering on Socially Engaged Buddhism exploring how beauty, mercy, and kinship can emerge amid brokenness, offered at Upaya Zen Center. Rooted in contemplative practice and shared inquiry, this gathering invites participants to reflect on how we meet suffering, injustice, and uncertainty with clarity, compassion, and care, and how our individual practice is shaped and sustained in community. Learn more and register: https://www.upaya.org Please consider supporting these extraordinary charities. Village of Love and Resistance (“VOLAR”) is a black and brown-led collective with more than 100 years of experience of living, working, worshiping, studying and playing, and praying in East Baltimore. VOLAR plans to renovate and transform a facility into a community and wellness center as well as rebuild and reinvest into the surrounding area through engagement of the people and implementing neighborhood development projects. Donate here: https://www.volar.site/donate Please support my friend Kaira Jewel Lingo and her partner, Father Adam Bucko, as they live into fulfilling their dream to build a spiritual and ecological community, a sanctuary of healing just 1.5 hours from New York City. Donate here: https://www.kairajewel.com/donate |
