Springing into Life
The latest news from Narrowboat Bright Arrow, the next Thread and Flame Planning Retreat and two tools for transformation.
Hello Beautiful Soul
In this missive you’ll find musings about Spring, some dates for your diary and news of the Spring Equinox Thread and Flame Planning Retreat. I’m also sharing a couple of tools I use to help me stay on track as I work on any project, including my weekly practice which has helped me to “learn as I grow” over the last few years. Without consistently doing this practice, some weeks I might have become more than a little derailed.
🌿 Meteorological Spring starts on 1st March, but I have always felt the energy of the Vernal Equinox truly marks the beginning of Spring.
Nature also seems to be having a debate about this matter. Some of the hazel trees near my winter mooring have been bedecked with catkins since January (a little optimistic, even for hazels). Meanwhile the snowdrops which grow in rare patches beside the towpath have been late, only opening their delicate flowers during February.
Last Autumn I remember a mast crop of acorns, nuts and berries. I was convinced it would be a hard winter. Yet, with the exception of 10 frosty, snowy days, winter has been predominantly cloudy, wet and relatively mild.
As I write this today, I can feel a shift in the air. Maybe because the sun is out (yes really, it is gleaming through a veil of high cloud) and the blustery wind of the last few days has fallen light.
The water around my boat is still, and there is quiet birdsong from the nearby hedgerows. It feels as though the wild creatures are beginning to nest build and seriously prepare for the activity of the warmer months.
That’s an energy I want to carry through the rest of this month. I’m preparing for finally cruising away from my winter mooring - servicing the engine and stocking up cupboards - but it’s more than that. I’m taking a fresh look at my dreams and projects for the rest of this year, and asking myself how can I best plan and prepare for what I wish to create over the coming months.
This really is a time not only to prepare the ground for our dreams, but finally to start sowing seeds and watering them with our attention and actions over the coming weeks.
With that in mind, you’re all invited to the Spring Equinox Thread and Flame Planning Retreat (free to paid subscribers). More on that later.
🌿 Daily Microdosing (on creativity)
I’m delighted to hear that some of you have also started this practice. It’s surprising the difference that just 15 minutes of daily creativity can make.
I’ve become hooked on watercolours (I am still painting feathers) and this daily practice means I always have something to look forward to, even on days when I’m doing a heap of boat and business admin.
There’s even good research to show that even the briefest time spent on a creative pastime such as painting, playing a musical instrument or handcrafting, has a positive impact on our well-being and emotions.
For those of you who’ve not yet indulged, the idea is simple. To choose a wordless creative activity, and practice it for just 15 minutes each day.
It can be something as simple as a colouring practice to learning to play the bagpipes (I did actually do this, when I lived in the Falkland Islands years ago). It can be something you do simply for the fun of it and it could even be linked to one of your dreams. Only you can decide.
Here are some tips if you’d like to give this a whirl:
Keep it simple - make it something you can easily pick up and start.
Choose one or two things, but only practice one in each 15 minute session
Decide a time and place you’ll do this every day - make this easy for yourself. When are you most likely to remember to do get your microdose in?
Use a timer. Give yourself permission to stop as soon as the 15 minutes is up, and also permission to continue if you know you have the time available.
Make it fun.
It doesn’t have to be perfect! And if you miss a day (sometimes I do) that’s OK - notice why it happened and do what you can to ensure you get your creative practice in on the next day.
Keep a note of the days you get your micro-dose in, and notice what difference it makes for you after you’ve been going for a week or two.
📆 Dates for your Diary
🌿 Spring Equinox Thread and Flame Planning Retreat will be on Sunday 22nd March, 5pm-7pm UK time .
April and May bring our next two DreamCraft Gatherings - do save these dates in your diary:
🌿 April DreamCraft Session: Monday 20th April 6:30pm-8:00pm UK time.
🌿 May DreamCraft Session: Monday 18th May 6:30pm-8:00pm UK time.
These gatherings are nourishing and inspiring spaces for women, and they are free to all paid subscribers. If you’d like to come to one or all of them, please consider upgrading your subscription. Replays will be available for each event if you can’t attend live.
Choosing What You Will Grow
The energy of the Spring Equinox invites us to consider what we want to cultivate in our lives. It is the ideal time to decide what to devote your energy to over the coming season.
In this Spring’s Planning Retreat we will be reconnecting to the heart of our dreams, and the projects which we want to work on this year.
Through guided reflection and creative mapping, we will reconnect with our vision and discern a clear direction for not only the rest of the year, but also for the season ahead.
You’ll come away with a map of your next steps, a plan of how to make them happen, and knowledge of where to find the support and resources which would support you along the way.
This retreat isn’t about adding more to your to-do list; it’s about making space for what truly matters.
It’s about deciding what seeds you are going to sow, and how you will tend them so they grow well over the coming Season
I’m going to write separately with everything you’ll need to know about the retreat later this week, so do keep an eye to your inbox.
In the meantime, here are the details you need for your diaries:
🌿 Spring Equinox Thread and Flame Planning Retreat Details 🌿
Date: Sunday 22nd March
Time: 5pm-7pm UK time (please check your time zone - some of you will already be on daylight savings)
Location: Live Online via Zoom (the joining link will be emailed on Sunday 22nd March)
Access: Free for all paid subscribers.
A replay will be available if for any reason you can’t attend live.
I look forward to seeing some of you there!
🌿 What would you like to grow over the next Season?
Whether or not you can attend the Thread and Flame Planning Retreat, I’d like to offer you some simple yet surprisingly powerful questions to help you reflect on what you would like to have happen in your life over the next 3 months.
I use these questions as journalling prompts, and I let my imagination paint pictures in response. Gift yourself 15 minutes and see what you discover through your answers.
Q1 For Spring (the next 3 months) to go just the way you would like, it will be like what?
And what will you see and hear when it’s like that?
Q2 And for your Spring to be like [repeat answer from Q1], you’ll need to be like what?
And what will others see and hear when you’re like that?
Q3 And for Spring to be like [answer from Q1], and you to be like [repeat answer from Q2], what support or resources will you need?
And what will you see and hear when you have that?
I’m going to be journalling on these questions today, the first day of Meteorological Spring. I already know my answer to the first question: For my Spring to go just the way I’d like, it will be like a clear, bright stream cascading down the side of a wild mountain, bringing life and beauty to the land it passes through.
You’re welcome to message me with your answers - I’d love to hear what you discovered.
A beautiful garden is grown with consistent care
whatever you tend will grow.
The same is true
for the garden of your life.
🌿 Learning as we grow: A Simple and Powerful Practice
Planning for the future is one way to help us make real progress on a project, but if we continue repeating mistakes or following old unhelpful patterns, even the best plan will swiftly unravel.
It’s essential to take time to pay attention to what has actually happened in life, and to learn from it. I like to believe that life is happening for me, not to me. This means that even in unfortunate circumstances there will be some lesson for me, even if it takes a while to discern.
I’d love to share with you a simple and surprisingly powerful practice that can help us to learn (and grow) as we go through life. It only need take 10 minutes each week, and it’s one of the easiest ways I know to learn from what’s happened, and to course correct so we can stay on track with any project.