I recently took a few days for a silent retreat in a camper-cabin. I’ve been feeling off-balance and un-well in mind & body, and needed some quiet space with the trees to hear myself think; to turn off all the voices and the inputs. My creative brain has this silly back-door secret hope that retreats will come with big insights and fresh ideas (and sometimes they do). And I brought a huge stack of books in hopes of turning my reading brain back on. But when I got there I was just Blank. Empty. Zilch. Turns out it’s going to take more than a few days of quiet to put a dent in the exhaustion that this year has brought. So instead I just zoned out: zoned out in the cabin, zoned out on long hikes, zoned out at my food cooking over the campfire, zoned out listening to wordless music.
It wasn’t until I was driving home that some clarity came flowing in. Life things I was not looking forward to returning to. What I need less of and more of. That time of emptiness, which felt a bit eery, was needed to create a quiet contrast to the “too-muchness” of the everyday. Some paring down and opting out is needed.
In the Northern Hemisphere we’re in the season of the Spring Equinox, Ostara - the earth has risen to the lighter half of the year while the Southern Hemisphere moves into Autumn, the darker half of the year. Both the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes are seasons of finding new equilibrium; great times to re-balance, to shift around the weight of what you’re carrying, to put some things down and pick other things up. The primary energy difference between the two is that in Spring there’s starting and newness — ramping up our projects — I think of it as Nature’s New Year, and it’s when I’m finally ready to start working in earnest on new goals I was dreaming about during Yule and Imbolc. In the Fall the re-balance will go in the direction of wrapping up and paring down projects.
I talked last fall about MORE / LESS lists — the Spring and Fall equinoxes are great times to check in with yourself and make a fresh one. Ask yourself:
Where do I feel un-balanced?
What would I like less of?
More of?
(For No. Hems): What feels fresh this Spring? What’s feeling stale?
(For So. Hems): What needs wrapping up this Fall?
This isn’t all or nothing; just more and less for here and now. (We can re-balance again in 6 months.)
Happy Equinox season,
If you loved my picture book A COZY WINTER DAY and look forward to A COZY SUMMER DAY, would you consider pre-ordering? It releases May 15! ☀️
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