Writing in the New Year

How I'm using my hand, head, and heart this month to continue inward and feel renewed for what comes my way in 2024. Essentially, how I'm doing what feels best to me right now.

New Year 2024

Arjuna 
Rest Here.
Relax into who you really are.
You are magnificence itself.
Let go of resistance to everything,
And what remains is the perfect flow
Of effortless Life.
What you are unwilling to feel
Remains as tension,
Becomes gnawing,
Grows into addiction.
Restore the capacity to feel fully,
To allow the experience without flinching,
And the addiction, the gnawing, the tension,
Dissolve.
Rest here and things are simple.

~ Arjuna (from the Bhagavad Gita)

“Rest here and things are simple” - Arjuna

Every January I wrestled with what to write. There’s so much energy around resolutions, words for the year, goals. Ugh! It makes my head spin. 

I’m just not ready to hit the ground running yet. I’m still in a slow, dark, cozy, hibernation space. Its dark and cold outside - 23 degrees F today. I know that soon I’ll need to get moving more but I’m just not there yet. Don’t get my wrong, I’m still doing my three mile daily walk and morning yoga, just at a slower, more thoughtful pace. 

The holidays are just coming to an end. Everyone is just returning to their schools and the transition to the non-holiday season is only beginning. There is lots of tea, bowls of popcorn, reading, dreaming, resting. I’m still waiting for a big snow storm to blanket everything in white. It’s still a time of reflection. The seeds I’m planting now won’t be ready until closer to spring. It’s not time to emerge from hibernation yet. My creativity seems to understand this, it feels dormant. There’s still work to do in the darkness.

There’s still work to do in the darkness.

I’ve decided not to force anything right now. To rest, relax, let go of resistance, and see where this approach takes me. Right now, it means this post sounds more like a newsletter. The newsletter will still come out with its usual deeper dive into these thoughts. It just feels right not to force … anything.

Here’s how I am using my hand, head, and heart this month.

By the time Imbolc (February 1st) and Candlemas (February 2nd) roll around I am certain I will be ready to celebrate the lengthening of days and early signs of spring. And, I’m certain i’ll be back into my writing rhythm. Until then, here is how I'm using my hand, head, and heart this month to continue inward and feel renewed for what comes my way in 2024. Essentially, how I’m doing what feels best to me right now. 

Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash

Hand: Knitting. This is the time of the year when I love sitting by the fire and knitting. I come to knitting with a deep desire to create. I’m really good at scarves, dish towels, and wash cloths. I have dreams of sweaters and socks that never materialize. But that’s okay. Knitting for me is about something else. It’s more like meditating. Knit 2 Purl 1 becomes a mantra. My breathing slows. My mind clears. I feel refreshed when I have completed several rows. This is not at all about perfection or even completion. It’s about being present, just taking one stitch at a time.

I love Purl Soho. Their shop in NYC is a visual delight, even when it is packed with people as it has been the handful of times I’ve been there. Relying on their online shop, as I do, is easy. Their yarns are lovely and it is clear that their mission is so much more than just selling yarn. They are truly there to support anyone who wants to create. Their newsletter is always full of information (yet not overwhelming) and they provide free patterns, a wide range of video tutorials, and even free 1-on-1 Project Help.

This month I will be sitting by the warm glow of the fire and working on the Elementary Wrap

Head: Reading and journaling. There are books and stories I come back to time and time again to reflect. This year I am narrowing my reflection readings down to three books. And, if I’m being truthful, I’m not limiting the number of stories. 

I am using a similar process that I use between Christmas Day (December 25th) and Epiphany (January 6th). During these twelve days, I bring the year to a close and prepare for the new year by reflecting on what happened during the year. Then, I affirmatively leave it behind me. I don’t believe that a switch is flipped on January 1st and that everything is different when the new year begins. But a bit of reflection and letting go does the trick for me.

I appreciate reflecting on the outgoing year to see what it has taught me and to put it to rest. I also appreciate preparing for what the new year will bring even if I don’t know exactly what is coming. During these twelve days I open myself up to observe and gather signs, ideas, and wisdom to remember as I move into the new year. I write them down and reflect on them in my journal.

My process for how I am approaching reading in January is similar. I’m reading from books I continue to come back to and am gathering signs, ideas, and wisdom to remember in this new year. These are books that speak to the different parts of me as well as to my different interests. Specifically, my:

• Relationship with words.

• Relationship with creativity.

• Relationship with my me-ness.

This process is about being intentionally open and paying attention. Read, reflect, journal. Repeat. Read, reflect, journal. Repeat.

These are the books I am returning to this month:

1. Intuitive Writing: The Remedy for Writer's Block and the Secret to Authentic Communication by Jacqueline Fisch.

2. The Creative Doer by Anna Lovind.

3. Pilgrim: Living Your Yoga Every Single Day by Britt B Steele.

I’m also engaging with readings that captivate and ignite my imagination: the old stories like The Madness of Mis, stories about the Cailleach, Demeter, Artemis, Hestia, Freyja, Sophia, Sappho; and, books about herbs and plants like The Green Mysteries by Daniel A. Schulke and Iwigara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science by Enrique Salmon.

Photo by Izumi on Unsplash

Heart: Writing. I don’t mean the kind of writing I do here. I just haven’t been feeling the writing necessary for my usual posts. Every time I sat down to write a new post, I became distracted by a tiny little voice saying, “Write something else.” That’s not a voice I usually hear so I payed attention to it. As soon as I made that decision to listen, two ideas rushed to the surface and I began writing.

The two pieces I am working on this month are way outside of my comfort zone. The first piece is a fairy tale. During 2022-2023, I participated in Sharon Blackie’s Hagitude program. Throughout the program, we worked with Sharon on many aspects related to her book but the ones that struck me the deepest were the sessions on the process of myth making, writing a life story, and crafting a fairytale.

This month, I decided to write a fairy tale based upon my life. I decided to write it as a fairy tale to take the first person out of it. By doing so, it is an exercise in reflection and I am able to take a step back, gain new perspective, see events and people in a new light.

My fairytale includes various stages of the fairytale heroine’s journey, key events, significant people/helpers/allies, challenges. And, then I have symbolized aspects of it. The characters - human and more than human - are portrayed through archetypes. This has been so powerful as it has released me to freely consider those characters and their roles in my life.

The second piece is an origin story of sorts. I am writing about how I came to move from my church-based religious upbringing to my current form of spirituality. I’m sorry, I don’t have a word for it yet. And, that seems kinda perfect right now.

This origin story is also an exercise in reflection as I explore my journey and the shifts that occurred along the way. It begins at the beginning, when I was baptized (I was six years old so I remember the experience) and moves all the way to present day. I reflect upon the messages and expectations I received from adults around me while growing up and the signs that began to emerge that expanded how I think about religion and spirituality.

Most interesting to me, I found myself writing about how I felt the urge to create and reimagine rituals for myself. How I found within me rituals that are comforting and grounding but also private, independent from hierarchical and patriarchal constraints, connected to my experiences and beliefs, connected to those I love, to those I've never known, to the more than human beings, to the web of life, and to the eternal. And, how I was determined to provide our children with an opportunity to explore ritual and spirituality as well. 

Both of these pieces are an exercise in simply writing something down, not complicating it by adding judgment, simply capturing its essence. These two pieces will not end with this January’s writing; I don’t know how they will end. I expect that I will add to them each year as I grow, experience, shift, and recalibrate. Right now, the process is making the ordinary extraordinary.

Happy New Year!
May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours.

-From an Old Irish Blessing, author unknown