May Your Heart be Held in Tenderness This Holiday Season

by Patria Rector, Founder of The Broken & Beautiful Collective

The holiday season has a way of stirring what lives just beneath the surface.

For some, it brings warmth, memory, and a sense of belonging. For others, it carries grief, fatigue, or the ache of what has been lost or never quite found. Often, it’s a mix of all of it—tenderness and longing held side by side.

This time of year invites reflection. Many of us feel a deep desire for balance, repair, and something sacred enough to steady us in a complicated world. We long for peace—not as a platitude, but as something embodied and real. Something that can be felt in the body, held in relationship, and practiced in small, human ways.

At The Broken and Beautiful, this season feels especially meaningful. Our work has always been rooted in resilience—the kind that doesn’t deny what has been broken, but honors the slow, careful work of repair. Symbols like Kintsugi and the Ginkgo tree continue to guide us, reminding us that strength is often quiet, and restoration rarely rushed.

We are grateful for our community of practitioners who offer care that is both skilled and deeply kind—therapists, coaches, and guides who believe healing happens best in spaces marked by presence, honesty, and respect for the human story.

We’re also mindful that access to care remains a barrier for many. Through Courageous Pathways, our nonprofit arm, we seek to support those who long for storywork and help in harmful or devastating relationships but lack the financial means to pursue it. Care should not be reserved for the few; it is part of our shared responsibility to one another.

If you’re looking for gentle companionship this season, our podcast Echoes and Edges offers thoughtful conversations around story, healing, and what it means to live honestly in a complex world. Our newsletter and offerings continue to evolve as well, shaped by the needs and voices of this community.

Wherever this season finds you—full, weary, hopeful, or uncertain—may you experience moments of connection. May your heart, body, mind, and soul find some measure of support. And may you know that you are not alone in the longing for something more whole.

This is a season for gentle holding. For tending what matters. For remembering that presence itself can be a form of peace.

Please reach out to any of our practitioners if you need support today or any day.

Hope.

Patria