My Wintering…

Good morning Beautiful You-ers and Dream a Bigger Dreamers,

Happy, delicious, and everything you want 2022!

As you may have noticed, I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from writing my blogs for you, my Beautiful You-ers and my Dream a Bigger Dreamers.  I needed some time to re-center, to pull myself back in after I realized I’d spread my energy far and wide in trying (and actually doing) too many things.

This was a conscious decision to let go of my delightful SOULBling conversations after nearly a year and a half, I stopped checking my website, I stopped trying to figure out what to write next for my blog, or what I should post on social media.  I stopped worrying and wondering how to get more followers, or even if I wanted more followers.  Most importantly, I stopped looking outside myself and returned to an inner perusal.

Without all this beautiful noise, noise that had sustained me and brought me such joy at one point, it got quiet in my mind, in my body, in my soul.  And this quiet has left me feeling more whole and holy than ever.

Within this quiet, I’ve found more space to think and to be and to allow myself the room to do whatever I want without the push-pull of what I was supposed to do next on my supposed to-do list.  Stopping became a respite.  Like the earth, it was time to go fallow, to fall into that dark liminal space of regenerative, nutritive rest.

I’m completely aware all of this began in early Fall, as my parents and sister and brother-in-law were prepping to move, as my son went on his long drive-about, as winter was softly approaching with crisper winds and darker nights, leaves falling and covering the ground, the sky storming with weather, shifting and churning as the world below it snuggled down for a long winter’s sleep.

This respite is helping me understand on a deeper level what Winter is for me ~ a time where I tend to be more inner, tend to pull back and rest more.  I usually stop doing art and start writing more.  But this season has been even more different, quieter, slower, and with that, my capacity to allow and to create has expanded, opened up in a new way.  I’m riding the ebb and flow of my life with greater ease and intent, giving myself permission to stay up late with a good book or a movie, to stay in bed far into the morning luxuriating in snuggling with my guy, to go to sleep early and wake up when it’s still dark, the moon casting her silver white glow upon all us all, the stars’ shine even brighter.

It’s been a delight, rediscovering myself.  And this Winter, I wish you the same for you, my beautiful dreamers.

May you find your inner peace and the space to gather all the nutritive energy you need so when Spring comes you’re bursting and overflowing with all that revitalized momentum  and the grace and ease of knowing and loving yourself all the more.

Love,

Shannon

PS  Want to read more about Wintering, please check out Katherine May’s book, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

PSS If you find yourself wanting a bit of a pick me up, anything you listen to from Leah Campbell Badertscher at The Art School podcast will be just the magic elixir you need.