I am a recovering perfectionist, productivity chaser, and people pleaser, coaching women to disrupt old thought patterns, let go of behaviors that keep them stuck, and make their joy an everyday priority.
🦩 reasonably unseasonal 🦩
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Guten Tag, Reader, It’s an afternoon in August, and I just brought my writing outside. The unseasonable temperateness of the temperatures makes it possible. (Did you know that temperature used to be a synonym for mild weather?) There is a lot of unseasonable going on right now. I might even say an unreasonable amount of unseasonableness: The Halloween Decorations are coming out in the temples of capitalism and today (August 6!) I even saw a Thanksgiving display. My creativity is even further ahead in time.And, actually, simultaneously anchored back in 2019. That’s when I had the idea to create a deck of 24 cards for you to display in your house during Advent. Then I got scared of the process. “What do you know about creating and selling tangible objects?” I created an email advent calendar instead, and I’ve been sending those out to an ever-growing list each December.* Then I ran my little Midlife Mischief Beta**, teaching participants how to counter their anxieties with curiosity and weave a life of mischievous creativity. As I worked through the curriculum myself, I couldn’t remain convinced that an adventure into the world of touchable artefacts was a threat to my survival. So, here I am, looking at my favorite winter photos in August.Crafting wintery nature invitations while walking through a forest that should smell of summer pine but emits the scent of wet grass instead. I don’t really feel off-season. It is what nature does: seeding, sprouting, growing, flowering, all so that the resources are ready to harvest when they are needed. Who is to say that five years is too much time from idea-seed to project-flower? Well, my inner critic says so, obviously, but the trees remind me that humans are always too hasty. Speaking of tree rhythms… An Off-Year on MediumMy apple tree has taken an off-year. I venture out barefoot in the mornings to find a fruit to add to my oatmeal, and nothing.*** The apricot tree across the fence, meanwhile, has limbs drooping with abundance after not seeming to remember the color orange for a few years. Another reminder from the more-than-human world that life is not linear, as much as humans try to make it all about more, MOre, MORE. My apple tree didn’t think of taking an off-year. It just did because energy needed to be preserved and resources restored. I didn’t think of taking an off-year on Medium, either. It just happened while my creativity was flowing elsewhere. But I am back there, now. For deeper, longer, rawer pieces, find me there. Tell meWhat’s a seasonal rhythm you are noticing right now (outside or within)? Last call into the currentListen, this is the last time I will mention wildHER. Our launch is a little over a month away, and I do hope you will finally say yes to this call to adventure. If you have any questions, concerns, or curiosities, please email me. I will see you back here in two weeks. If you liked this letter, please forward it to a friend. Always on your side, truly, *If you are on this list and have received email advent calendars in the past, you will receive an exclusive preview and pre-order email soon. If you aren’t, well, you’ll have to wait until the current takes it to you. ** It was POWERFUL, and as soon as the Advent Calendar is at the printer, I will build this out into something with even deeper roots and wider canopy. *** The squirrels are finding what’s available higher up, teasing me with their leftovers, marked by their tiny squirrel teeth. The wasps appreciate this food chain cycle. p.s. If you found something valuable in today's letter, why not buy me a coffee? I am keeping my writing AI-free, which means a lot of creativity goes into it. You can leave a tip for me here. |
Welcome to my Joy Letters
I am a recovering perfectionist, productivity chaser, and people pleaser, coaching women to disrupt old thought patterns, let go of behaviors that keep them stuck, and make their joy an everyday priority.
Guten Tag, Reader, “Alright, you know what’s coming…” I say to my client, and a big grin appears on her face. She wasn’t always this keen on answering the question I ask at the beginning of every coaching session: “What are you celebrating about yourself? What have you been proud of since we last spoke?”* “My intuition and the fact that I followed it,” she says I won’t tell you what she intuited, but I will tell you that her intuition was right on point, and the results are positively...
Guten Tag, Reader, The German word Vorfreude roughly translates into pre-joy, and I just felt it tingling through my body, walking through downtown Missoula on a Saturday morning and anticipating the pastry case at Morningbirds Bakery. In my mind, I could taste the cinnamon roll; I felt the spongy texture in my mouth, and I imagined licking the sticky icing off my fingers. In that moment, I wasn't thinking about my to-do list or worrying about my local public radio station. My thoughts had...
Guten Tag, Reader, My thoughts were lulled into a rare state of quietude by the sounds of crickets and my steps on the gravel trail. The scent of summer pine. The heat of the afternoon on my face. Until a shriek unlulled me—pulled my eyes to the sky. One of my favorite shows to watch had come on: “Chasing Hawks,” played out by two chickadees harassing a red-tailed hawk. It never looks strategic (or smart) on the little birds’ part, diving, circling, fluttering, darting. Maybe that’s what...