Dear friends,

As we step into this new year, I want to offer something more than a simple wish for happiness. I wish you a year that is Alive, that it is one that meets you in your depths and invites, and at times challenges you to live from what is most real and most true within you.

We live in a time that can feel fractured and overwhelming, a time in which the ground beneath our feet seems to be shifting in ways we may never have imagined. And yet, those of us who have walked the Path of Love know something essential: above and beneath the noise and speed of the world, there is a deeper, eternal current always available to us. One that asks not for perfection, but for presence. Not for certainty, but for sincerity, truth, and the willingness to responsibly take ownership of the old patterns that keep us imprisoned and therefore part of the problem.

This year, there is also something else I want to name. There is a dynamic and growing momentum around the Path of Love work. More and more people are feeling the call to engage at this level, and the demand to participate has never been greater. I take this not as a sign of trend or fashion, but as a reflection of the moment we are living in, a time when many sense that the old ways of coping are no longer enough, and that something deeper is needing to emerge, both personally and collectively—something that is, quite literally, screaming to be lived.

In a world that often feels unsteady, the invitation is certainly not to withdraw, but rather to root ourselves more deeply in what is real. To live with our hearts open, our feet on the ground, and our attention turned toward what truly matters. The Path of Love is not an escape from the world, but a way of meeting it with clarity, courage, and compassion.

News flash: Turiya and I are working on a book about the essence of the Path of Love process, which we hope to complete in the next few months.

And in case this all sounds very serious, I want to add that although the process itself is challenging, it is also extremely joyful, ridiculously fun, and very often ends with participants looking around the group after seven days and saying, “You people know me better than anyone else in my life!”

And finally, and of course, Happy New Year to you all.

With love,

Rafia

And a from Rumi, which reminds us it’s been time for a long time...
 

The time has come to turn
your heart into a temple of fire.
Your essence is gold, hidden in dust.
To reveal its splendour,
you need to burn 
in the fire of
Love.

- Rumi