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.
🛌 Winter – The Season of Sweet 'NO-THANK-YOUs' 🛌
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Guten Tag, Reader, The land settles into winter. All growth is done, all seeds have been set, and all systems are switching from generation and expansion to slow-shit-down and leave-me-the-fuck-alone. Well, I might be projecting on that last bit. Certainly, though, nature knows winter is the season to conserve and protect energy. Yes, I am noticing the juncos, chickadees, finches, flickers, magpies, and squirrels moving about my backyard every day now. But only for gathering food. There is no frivolous expenditure of energy. There is only the gathering of more, as much as is available in the winter. Humans might be the only species that has forgotten about seasonal living. Industrialism and colonialism made sure we keep hustling. I invite you to consider how you might hustle outside of work, too. The holiday season is prone to make us say ‘yes’ to things we don’t actually want to do. Attending parties, hosting people, writing cards, decorating rooms, buying stuff, baking treats, cooking meals. Did you have a reaction to anything on this list? What is the worst that could happen if you refused? My friend Bev always reminds me that ‘no’ is a complete sentence. But there are some other options to decline:
Okay, so our brains have been manipulated to forget about seasonal living. Our animal bodies remember. But we still push them as if they didn’t need rest and restoration in the winter. In the Midlife Wilderness Expeditions, we are all about seasonal living.Since winter is the season to nourish our deepest reserves, there will be less learning or doing new things and more strengthening of what we are already capable of. If you choose this adventure, you’ll lean into the experience and wisdom you have squirreled away your whole life. We will share stories around the virtual campfire and notice the unique scent, sound, taste, and sights of winter. Yes, we’ll go outside together because that’s just what a good expedition is all about. So bring a jacket. And bring your creative project to focus on — whatever it may be. This is a unique opportunity that is sure to motivate and inspire you for spring growth. 2025 Planning Your Thing?And if this is the time you plan your adventures for the coming year, consider going Rogue and joining my friend Angie and me on our WildHER Rogue River Adventure next September. Respond going Rogue to this email, and I will gladly email you the details. 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, p.s. If you got something from today's letter, why not buy me a coffee? I am keeping my writing AI-free, so I put much work into it. You can leave me a tip here. p.p.s.: If you want more of me than a letter every other week, you might enjoy hanging out with me on social media: |
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.
How do you wish to walk into 2025? This is me trying to avoid sliding into it on an icy road. Even though the Germans will wish you a "good slide" ("Guten Rutsch"). Photo by Mr Laine Guten Tag, Reader, Here we are again, the liminal week that the Germans call “Time Between The Years.” Neither here nor there, neither now nor then. I was going to mention the term “lame duck,” often used to describe the time between one administration and the next. But then I thought it was lame imagery, so...
My prescription for the winter blues: smell the forest at dusk. Guten Tag, Reader, The sweetness tickled my nose as a deep breath carried it through my nostrils. Immediately after, my brain registered bitter and earthy hitting my olfactory system on a soothing wetness, so different from the dry (and annoyingly loud) air that’s being forced through the vents in my house to shelter me from the approaching winter and its blunt. Smelling a fall forest weaves a thread that connects me far, far...
What it looks like when my Soul Goals get stirred up. Photo taken by Mr Laine at Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. Guten Tag, Reader, Over in the Midlife Wilderness Expeditions, I wrote the participants a real honest email this week. I told them I feared they would shove the material I had taken days to create to the back of their junk drawers and that I might never see them again. I shared that in all my years as a coach and even more years as a sponsor in my 12-Step Program, I have...