Write the Year
Part One | Eclipse Full Moon Contemplation & Reader Participation
Hello Creative One,
Isn’t that a nice and true compliment. You are a creative being. May this e-mail help you move and write from that space. Your words and ways are needed.
Last year, I settled down to make a way for us to write together that would move a bit with the year, the seasons and not be too burdensome for either of us.
I have learned a few things:
Constant motion doesn’t stop change from catching us.
I flash to sitting at the water’s edge of where the idea for Write the Year came from. It is a park in Pennsylvania that is fed by a stream still revered by the remaining Lenape. I mean, most people just go there to walk; however, few crouch down the side of stones and slip next to the live water, yet, there she still flows. For all. Further down from the spring, way in the overflowing creek is an easy place for me to sit and for my dog, Nui to swim.
Reaching for my phone to grab last year’s picture, I stopped. I didn’t want to see what my heart is whispering to me: She’s getting older. 14 is a golden age for a pup.
I don’t much like losing things: places, people, or ways. And that has apparently gotten me into a bit of trouble as I age because each season as much as we need to tend the flame of what we carry with us — we need to let it burn some things away. Accrual is natural. Look at the piling leaves, but so is death, as the leaves left will break down and give way to homes for bees, and nutrient dense compost for the coming spring. It is something for me to remember. It is only man-made products that accrue and crumble (plastic). Nature births and releases each year.
Nui sometimes looks at me like a Zen Master scolding a stubborn apprentice. She reminds me what we do and do not. We do not clasp onto that which needs to move. She hopped out of the car on her own accord, and walked slowly towards the trail. When I reminded her we were going swimming, she picked her tail up into a wag and trotted onward.
She tells me in her slower pace — I am aging. She reminds me in her trot — I am still here. She shows me in her leg outstretched to touch mine at night — to love where and while we can. The love never fades, the touch has only so long to be enjoyed.
“A dog comes to you and lives with you in your own house, but you do not, therefore, own her, as you do not own the rain, or the trees, or the laws which pertain to them …
A dog can never tell you what she knows from the smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know almost nothing. . .”
— Mary Oliver
This is the gift of contemplation. Catch the glimmers beforehand. Return to cycles and spaces to hear whispers more easily, rather than attempt to outrun them, and miss the presents being offered.
Make fun & pleasure a priority
I think instead of work harder though, it’s a bit more about having Fun. I had Cortney McDermott’s book out for this post and I flipped open to this:
🎙 If you like to listen to chats while you unload the dishwasher click here:
It seems fun has been pushed aside for — later. But later rarely comes as much as we think. That’s what I’ve seen and decided to change. There is this reel that keeps popping in my IG algorithm, made by different creators, that it takes something like 20 gajillion times for our brains to learn new patterns, unless we do it though fun. Then it takes 3-4 repetitions.
3-4 repetitions.
Drop the shame-baggage, my friend. You’ve got yourself on a loop-de-loop that will always leave the good stuff for later.
I have to admit though, as someone with what seems to me a lot of responsibility, I get a little tired of being told to have fun. Like, hello! Of course I would be having more fun if I didn’t have all these things to do! So I have two ways I try to check myself. Would you like to hear them? One goes backwards and one goes forwards.
💡 I ask myself is this something my grandparents would have struggled with?
And it sometimes illuminates for me where I have been overrun with the too-much-ness of today, and how can I scale back? For example, am I trying to solve a content creation problem on the Internet at 10pm when I should be letting my mind rest, not as an act of self-care, but because that is one of the little instructions written on the inside of our brains: Power off at night for best results.
Or, maybe I have had zero time and I am rushing around so my food choices haven’t been so great: again, grandparents did not eat the processed junk that we have as options (and I’m pretty finicky so there ain’t a lot of processed foods per say in our household, but perhaps I haven’t made a grounding meal) so I think about making a little more effort there, again back to that body & brain instruction manual. When the brain and the body are being treated with care, life tends to get more fun pretty, pretty quickly.
💡 Now, the other way I check my thinking…because that is what we are doing. When we are rushed, we are moving on an assumption that there is only one way to get where we are going. When we check our perspective or assumptions, we pause and open up to possibilities. I think this could be a muscle-set that needs to be developed, but it’s worth it.
I ask myself what would 60 year old Kate say to this? She is about 12 years ahead of me. Would she look back and say I have run out of time? Would she say, spend more time chasing that thing? Et Cetra. Or would she say — run out in the rain with your kid for another ice cream because these days go by so fast.
To be honest, this is the one that helps me have more fun the quickest. She helps me center the fastest and she helps me say I am sorry with the most authenticity, and try again. She is a really great friend.
📝 JOURNAL PROMPT: I bet your future self is a great friend, too. She is like an ancestor to-be. She is watching these rhythms of choice and season, she may have some great tips for you. You could make a very lovely cup of coffee, tea, or chai (*with fresh ginger makes a major up level btw) and write to her. Sit with her, outside is best. And listen.
I meant to ask — What are you sitting and writing these days? Where are you pushing where you could be floating? By the way, I think this is a seasonal answer. I do suspect that most of the beautiful beings here though have given and grown as best they can eight days a week and this full moon eclipse that is illuminating my keyboard through the light of day is saying — let me help. Let life help.
Do you? Do you let in help — easily?
Tune into cycles and seasons and watch how quickly Nature works with you. Turning towards natural rhythms, like our grandparents did, helps us understand those whispers, so we know when to harvest and when to dance.
What good is writing the year if we don’t laugh and play? Why miss the Good that is in front of us: the person, the opportunity, the moment because we fear it will end? I hope you are shimmying to the song while you read these words.
🌽📝 JOURNAL PROMPT: What are you harvesting this season? I met a man once who said, I know how life is treating you, what I want to know is how are you treating life?
How would you answer? How are you treating life? Is she allowed to have her way with you? Are you dancing with Her?
Before you answer, let that idea swirl a moment. See what She says, then let us know below!
In appreciation,
Kate
Sitting & Writing
Love this. Miss Nut and you. Hearts.