Turning points

Tending to myself with possibility, compassion + abundance

As I approach the starting blocks of another year, I’m reminded of the times I raced to and from this point with no real sense of what it meant to live in harmony with my energy.

With practice, I’ve learned to support my bandwidth and to enjoy this transition between Christmas and Hogmanay—a chance to do some reading and writing around eating and napping and to make time for journaling and envisioning.

This was a challenging year, and an incredible one. So, before I welcome 2024, I thought I’d share the turning points and my plans for closing the festive season with intention.

“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”

― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Highlights

The event that marked a real shift in my life was the welcome addition of a gorgeous new team member. Despite deciding that sleep is for the weak, Lowen is joyful by name and nature!

There have also been some lovely collaborations within my Notelets on Nurture series, and I’m so grateful to everyone who shared their wisdom:

Sara Duigou

Nadja de Oliveira

Hannah Ashe

Lindsay Johnstone

Laura Oldfield

Lyndsay Kaldor

and

Nina E

. If you’d like to contribute in 2024, please reach out!

Another moment was stepping into the world of paid writing. My rejection challenge led me to a surprising opportunity and my first paid piece goes live on 1st January. It stretched me in all the right ways and gave me the last nudge to set up my paywall, something I'll share more about on Monday.

Learnings

Allowing myself some distance from my memoir was so worthwhile. I feared revisiting those pages because I thought it would open up old wounds, but the benefits of filing the book away while saving resources for other writing opportunities are clear to me now. It's opened doors that otherwise might have remained closed.

Rekindling this passion project of mine also took me in the direction of Essay Camp with

Summer Brennan

. And I’m so pleased I tagged along, if only for a week! Five Things was a helpful daily exercise which reminded me that tiny steps matter. And I’m now seeing my memoir writing process through a new lens.

And then there’s embracing play because how often have you thought you might like to try something, then talked yourself out of it for fear of doing it imperfectly? My daughter, Cora, fuels my sense of play because she loves experimenting and rarely frets over the outcome. So, I hope to keep channelling her energy and enthusiasm because it’s served me in endless ways.

“Where resolutions feel like rules that will inevitably be broken, choosing a word as a guiding light feels so much more expansive.”

—

Susannah Conway

Intentions

As the year comes to a close, I turn to intentional reflection, often downloading the Unravel Your Year workbook by

Susannah Conway

for inspiration—a favourite among many of you, it seems!

I treat this as a relaxing little ritual, a chance to turn inward and mull over where I’ve been, where I am and where I’m going. At its core is curiosity, and I’m always interested to see what might surface. Carving out this space for mindful journaling has been the ideal way to soften into the last few days.

Over the last 12 months, I’ve been guided by a phrase: ‘create stillness and treasure moments.’ It stemmed from a sense of lost time and a need to slow down. I was tired of ruminating over yesterday and agonising over tomorrow. I wanted to appreciate the here and now instead of pining for what lay behind or ahead of me. Combining the words I’d been toying with felt more purposeful.

There was also a strong desire to be grounded, present, to feel through every experience. All the milestones of my eighth and last pregnancy, especially those moments I feared would never come.

This was the year that ended with a sense of pure relief. I am tired, and I am wired. But as I look ahead, I can hold myself with a healthy dose of acceptance and compassion.

There’s a lightness and freedom there, and I’m glad to be moving into a phase of life where secondary infertility and recurrent miscarriage don’t take centre stage.

I get to draw the curtain. I get to turn off the lights. I get to leave that script behind.

Last year, there was very little reflecting or planning, I think because I was a spinning top of anxiety and anticipation. It wouldn’t have brought me any joy to pour over those feelings. So I’ve enjoyed coming up for air, marking this shift with the company of my journal, and savouring the experience.

It was also fun to turn to Find Your Word, an accompaniment to Unravel Your Year, which helped me arrive at three compass words.

1. Possibility

   I was circling back to possibility before I started the workbooks. Something to keep me open to new opportunities and experiences and foster an attitude of willingness to welcome growth and change. It felt good to hold onto this one.

2. Compassion

   The idea of compassion has been reaching out to me through my journaling. And I believe that to live the creative life while making way for chance, fate and risk, I must meet myself with so much more warmth and care.

3. Abundance

   When surprising things happen to us, it creates a sense of abundance, another feeling I'd like to keep tending to. For me, it encourages a mindset of health and wealth and of appreciation and celebration.

So, as others spring from the starting lines, I’ll move forward in my own time and at my own pace. And with a deep commitment and tenderness towards myself, my family and my creativity.

What were your defining moments this past year? How have these shaped your plans for the year ahead? And are there words that hold special meaning for you? I’d love to know.

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