Artwork: Rodney Graham
Good morning beautiful people,
I do hope that you safe and healthy, wherever you are in the world.
Long time no speak and wishing you the very best for this year. May you feel strong and humble all at once. May you feel clear and curious, may you feel aligned with you true self and know what it is to be off path too. May you live according to a rhythm that serves you and nourishes you.
In her book Wintering, author Kathrine May writes the following: “ Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through.
Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximising scant resources…
Once we stop wishing it were summer, winter can be a glorious season, a time for reflection, recuperation, slow replenishment and putting our home in order.”
Whether Katherine May refers to our internal home or our physical one is a mystery, but in the winter, slow is definitely the name of the game.
So how are you feeling right now?
I keep hearing people mentioning how fast this new year has started and how they wish they could take on a different pace.
To be honest, I feel anxious and overwhelmed when I go fast and my soul wants to go slow. The beautiful Leonard Cohen said in his song Slow: “ I have always liked it slow, I never liked it fast. With you it’s got to go, with me it’s got to last, it’s not because I am old, it’s not because I am dead, I’ve always liked it slow, that’s what my mama said.”
Slow doesn’t mean non productive, actually, it feels more present, grounded and more focused by the task we are taking on.
As we all navigate together into the unknown of what this year will bring us, I pray that we truly show up with humility, as we don’t know what others are going through and can be quick to judge. Times are getting harder, and though most of us are blessed, mental and financial difficulties are very much present. May we help each other and keep on wintering with style and heart.
Please do reach out if you have any questions or comments. I am here to listen and available for one on one sessions, online and in person.
With love and deep respect.
Vanessa
