Spring is almost here, and I have begun to clean and organize which feels so natural as seasons change. Sifting through closets and cupboards, finding donations, and assessing the painting and home improvements to tackle is in swing. When you’re a homeowner, it really doesn’t ever end, and when you’re a creative dreaming DIY type, you’re happy that it doesn’t.
This unplugged time also allows the mind to rest and the soul’s desires to rise to the surface. We’ll chat about random soul-speak, touch on assorted health highs and lows, be encouraged and tickled by the absurd, and likely end up with more questions than answers.
Who among us has satisfying answers to cope when the world is on fire anyway?
Random, Reflections, Quotes & Home Tours
Favorite Renovating Couples on HGTV
I love them for so many reasons (Ben is so much like our eldest son!). Erin struggles with physical and mental health as I do and has been open about it in a refreshingly candid way while still preserving privacy. They truly seem to be in a league of their own as far as celebrity-land, and then there’s their beautiful work!!! Full of so much talent and goodness, these two!
Do you still watch HOMETOWN on HGTV?
Who is ready for spring?
For No Good Reason
Like every other winter, I seem to attend to extra soul excavation work in this season. My health always suffers so I rely on new perspectives for healthier coping, rest, and liberation. Lots of research and appointments to make sure I’m covering all the bases. I used to get easily obsessed with a new idea. (Maybe it’s ____ causing all the inflammation or _____ triggering stress in the body…) But now I hold all things more loosely. I don’t know if I’m wiser, but digging my heels in has lost its charms in critical ways.
The only way I know how to welcome resilience right where I am is to move with a more lyrical flow. And honeychild, I was not built to flow. (Not naturally thin either, but here I am.) I am built to order, analyze, manage, and obsess. My father is built to flow, and it’s a beautiful thing to see at work. But me? It requires intention and overrides of the operating software. I’m doing gentle yoga. Studying the trees even more. Attempting to listen more deeply and become a witness to social situations where I’ll likely become overwhelmed or stressed. It’s not a small thing to pivot and make room for better rhythms and coping. Since I’m a writer, I’ll read a journal entry from a year ago and think: good gracious, you are exactly in the same headspace this very moment as you were a year ago…where’s your frackin transformation and new mind?
But slow progress is still progress. It’s okay if I’m in worse shape because often when you lose, you win. Also, maybe there’s fruit I simply can’t see yet. That’s what faith is about, yes?
Some of the old ways of cruelly judging myself drifted away. Progress. I feel less surprised when things go south. Progress. Things going south don’t signal I am doing life wrong so I can forgive myself. Progress.
Interior change won’t always be marked by radical external evidence. Cruel, but all part of the paradox. Why am I so attached to consolation and rewards anyway? The majestic maple in my front yard isn’t waiting for applause or encouragement to bud and become a spectacular home for birds. It cooperates; it gives and receives. There is often not a lot of consolation on the way to new growth or letting go of decay. It explains why so many choose to avoid any growth journey that doesn’t involve a passport and carry-on!
As I type these words, self-compassion bubbles up. BE STILL and know. It’s okay to not know right now. Knowing will come.
This journey may be solely my own, but I am one strong caterpillar in the dark of the chrysalis. My willingness to surrender to the work in stillness is honorable. I have conditions which help me to still; which are reminders that I may not have as much time.
No time like the present to dissolve, held by the Mystery: insulated by the unknowing, purified in its quiet knitting of a new thing equipped to fly.
Right where I am, my desire grows to expend less energy dreading, resisting, and fighting disease and pain as I open to the joy of sickness and suffering moving through me, to the miracle of new strength arising.
You Won’t Believe What They Did With Their 484 sf Home!
And you will also be awed when you hear about the history of this 1930s property and who lived here.
Isn’t that inspiring?
This British Comedienne Interviews Unsuspecting Experts & Scholars & OMG
Our son introduced me to Cunk on Earth, and oh my. It was at times excruciating to watch and also hilarious.
Katie Rosenfeld’s Gorgeous Renovated Wellesley Home Tour
I love this designer!
Tour My Favorite Nate & Jeremiah Project Home
Do you watch their show or follow their designs? This Paris inspired design could not happen to a sweeter family.
Tour the Very Traditional Townhouse of This STRANGER THINGS Actor & Be Awestruck!
I don’t know what I was expecting…I mean, I know actors aren’t necessarily anything like the characters they play. But this pairing of person and place was unexpected in delightful ways.
Under 500 Square Feet in Paris & a Family of 3?
I’ll never tire of the innovation and commitment to beautiful design architects and designers bring to homes they reimagine. Oh, the wonder of it all!
Did you need that reminder to let yourself off the hook? You’re not who you were. Nope. You’re a new creature with a new mind and a fresh, clean heart. Who cares if only you know? It’s no less lovely.
Could You Live in a 600 sf London Flat?
Let’s travel to Camden and tour a loft with inspiring architecture and history!
Thanks for smiling and sighing and reading with tenderness, friend.
Peace to you right where you are.
-michele
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