Proof of Life
Just like this little daffodil is the blossoming of a bulb’s longing for expression, our longings themselves are the proof of the life our hearts already know is possible.
The spaces that hold us
With so much time at home this past year, I've developed an even greater reverence for what surrounds me. It's the space that holds it all, my memories and my unfolding experience. Every minute of every day it makes the space for me to live into.
We are born creators
When I was 12 years old I drew all day long. Alone or with my best friend, I’d copy album covers and photos in magazines and it was my favourite thing in the world to do.
Free the curl, free the spirit
Today I had my first haircut in more than 7 months and does it feel good. The regrowth I could handle, but the lack of curl was really getting me down. I spent the best part of my youth cursing my curls.
A rediscovery and a new (old) poem
The older I get, the more I realise that life consists of repeatedly losing sight of myself and finding my way back, sometimes deliberately often seemingly by chance.
My word for 2021
This year, instead of intentions, I’ve decided to choose a word that sums up the energy I’d like to tap into as I go forward into 2021.
Darkest Night
Today’s winter solstice feels particularly ripe for reflection and even more of a new year than 1 January does, especially after a year that has itself felt like a kind of solstice, a deep pause.
Harvest Moon
Autumn always feels so abundant, in a deeper more subversive way than Spring does.
As above, so below
I think somehow we are always instinctively seeking this kind of balance between our inner and outer lives.
Wind, water, action!
There’s an excitement about these weathered ships and where they’re going. Nature is wild here too. Weeds and wild flowers and sea birds.
Dandelions
There is something magical about dandelions that I can’t resist. I have to make a wish.
One day at a time
Today, for the first time in two months, primary schools opened again here in Amsterdam. The first step towards loosening our lockdown.
Of things unknown and longed for still
When I was young, I dreamt I could fly too. I soared high above mountains and through valleys. I wasn’t a bird in my dreams. I was me, flying.
What does not bend, breaks
Backwoods living has tested my strength physically and emotionally and I've discovered a depth of resourcefulness I never knew I had.
Why am I leaving this?
Living here has been a journey back to me and to my place in nature.
Living the dream
My tree change included many hallmarks of a life on the land, birth and death, floods and fires and moments of holy communion with the natural world.
After the flood
I realised that of all the things that I cherish about living here, it's these flood days that I love the most.
The love of thousands
We are a potent mix of our essential selves and the accumulated experience of those that have come before us.