A Spring Wishlist

Spring arrives in small doses – a crocus here, a daffodil there – and then suddenly casts its spell on our landscape. It lifts our moods and reminds us there is always sunshine after rain. Here are some things that you could include in your plans for spring…

- How’s your literary life going? Give into temptation, throw off the blanket and head outside for a luxurious read as the spring sun warms your back. Choose uplifting reads by writers like Barbara Pym and Jane Austen to match the blossoming world around you. 

- With Mother’s Day falling on 26th March, this is definitely the time for gratitude. Extend your thankfulness to the special people in your life. 

- Easter, obviously. I command you to eat as many of the treats this season brings, be it hot cross buns, chocolate eggs or simnel cake. 

- Go on a bluebell walk. Put fresh daffodils on your desk. Take photos of the blossom whilst it lasts. Celebrate the beauty popping up all around you. 

- Have an epic spring clean. I think everyone finds it therapeutic to have a good old clear out. Clothes are the obvious one but there’s also gloopy nail varnishes, unwanted books and even email inboxes to think of. What better way is there to feel lighter as we move into spring? 

- Do some crafting. There are some very inspired crafts here to put on your ‘to make’ list. The bunny macaroons are serious baking goals. 

- As I talked about in this post from February, we can take our cue from the natural world after a long winter. Allow the parts of you that have lain dormant to flourish this spring. Re-take up a lost hobby, dust off an old creative project or try to recapture the spirit of a wonderful time in your life. 

Any of these take your fancy? What’s on your spring wish list? Let me know in the comments below… 

Love Notes from the Earth

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. - Proverb

The little shoots that are bursting thought the soil are like little love notes from the earth. Each one cheers us on and reminds us to keep going even on the glummest and gloomiest of days. Spotting these green shoots, the white froth of snowdrops or the jewel-like crocuses that adorn the ground in colourful patches is good for our souls. We can rest assured that brighter days are on their way.

Of course, I love winter and I wrote this post last year about cherishing it before it goes. But there is something magical about the regenerative energy that spring gives our gardens and ourselves.

  

If you’ve been pondering change, thinking you could be more than the self-limiting beliefs you have placed on yourself, take inspiration from the season’s change and rise up now. Be the hopeful, curious little shoot because you might just be the thing inspiring someone else to do the same.

Are you cheered by the onset of spring? Leave a comment below! 

April Reflections

How was your April? Did you manage to spot any bluebells, or go for a walk in the rain? Whatever you did with your April, I hope it’s been full of happiness and creativity. Here are a few little things to share with you this month…

Quotation

‘Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

 And thus the native hue of resolution

 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

 And enterprises of great pith and moment

 With this regard their currents turn awry

 And lose the name of action.’

- Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Or, in other words – overthinking is the enemy. This is so true in regards to the creative process. Often we have great, expansive ideas that we feel are safer from harm and criticism in our heads. Perhaps, we think, if we never write them they can never fall short of this ideal. But to fret over our ideas is to lose action, as Hamlet says. Make May the month you choose to be bold, brave and take action on your creative thoughts!

Reading

This month I went back into the weird and wonderful world of Muriel Spark, one of my absolute favourite writers, with The Comforters. The central character, Caroline, begins hearing the tapping of a typewriter and an authorial voice narrating her actions and innermost thoughts. This was Spark’s first novel and you can already see her unique voice developing.

Writing

This month I’ve been seeing the benefits of putting into practice the mantra of ‘don’t get it right, get it written.’ Sometimes all you can do is write what you want to say in the most basic, boring way you know. This foundation allows you to embellish and reshape later on, when you can see clearly what’s missing and what needs to be said.

Focus on…Well-being Spring Clean
I mentioned this before in my Six Ways to Enjoy Spring post. Spring is a great time to freshen up mentally. Take stock of the habits you’d like to get rid of, or habits you’d like to adopt for the better. Start the month by making a list of how you want to feel this May, and the actions you can take to achieve that feeling. If you want to feel grateful you could send someone a letter of appreciation. If you want to feel calm you could download a guided meditation.

Three things to look forward to in May

1. ‘April showers bring May Flowers’ – stocks, freesias, peonies, snapdragons to name a few.
2. Planning a lazy, luxury bank holiday breakfast.
3. Making pretty, pastel fairy cakes for May Day.

How has April been for you? What are you excited for in May?

March Reflections

Happy last day of March! This month has passed by in a deluge of chocolate eggs and cheery daffodils. Spring is underway at last! Here are a few bits and pieces from March I’d love to share with you…

Quotation

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” - Audrey Hepburn
This is an apt sentiment for these fresh spring days and a reminder to nourish the things we love.

Reading

The literary highlight of my month was She Came to Stay by Simone De Beauvoir. I was intimidated by the idea of De Beauvoir but I found her style very readable and so beautiful. The book tells the story of Francoise and Pierre, an intensely close artistic couple whose lives are disrupted when they invite a young woman into the relationship. It is mainly from Francoise’s perspective we experience the novel and we see her grapple with jealousy and self- hatred, desperation and cold hearted calculation. What De Beauvoir is best at is recounting female experience, and all the complexities than come with it, as well as highlighting the baser passions underlining the intellectual scene of Paris in the thirties.

Writing
One of my favourite things is finding out about other people’s creative process. I came across an essay by the poet Vicki Feaver in The Creative Writing Coursebook about her experience writing ‘Judith’, a poem inspired by the biblical heroine. She charts those moments of sudden, unexplainable inspiration as well as the workman like stages of writing where you have to just find a way of articulating what you want to say and being exact in it. I was delighted to find that she has written this short poetry workshop on capturing animals on the page.

Planning

Tolstoy said that ‘spring is the time of plans and projects’. It’s a good time to do a quarter year review on how you’re doing, how you’re working towards your goals and how you can bring a little more happiness into your life. With summer around the corner get thinking about excursions and activities you have planned for warmer days. Are there any creative projects you could start?

Three things to look forward to in April

1. Light evenings.
2. An Alternative April Fool’s day – doing something lovely for your favourite people to celebrate the start of the month.
3. Walks in the rain singing ‘Little April Shower’ from Bambi. 

What did you get up to in March? What are your plans for April? Let me know in the comments below…

February Reflections

February went by so quickly, it seems only yesterday we were scoffing pancakes and gorging on chocolate hearts. I’m quite excited to be well into 2016 now. Here are a few things I’d like to share with you from February:

Quotation

With spring just about emerging we’re involved in a moment of transition. I love how Julia Cameron draws comparisons between creativity and seasonal change:

‘When we are incubating something creatively, we follow a cycle of seasons. We begin locked in winter, when we look and feel devoid of ideas, although the ideas are there for us, simply dormant. Our wintry hearts lurch toward spring and suddenly an idea puts out a hopeful bud. The idea may be as festive as the buoyant cherry blossoms. Our idea is bright and indisputable. We blossom as the landscape does.  And then what happens? As surely as the seasons turn, our brightly budded ideas must now ripen and mature. Spring turns the corner into summer. Showy pink gives way to industrious green. Now come the long days of labour. We must work to bring forth the fruit of what we have envisioned.’ Julia Cameron

Reading

The highlight of my reading this month has been The World Before Us by Aislinn Hunter. I’m hoping to write a review of this soon. It’s a beautifully written story in which the past and the present, in this case the modern day and the Victorian era, interlink to create a compelling study of memory and environment. The book’s focus is on the idea of the things we surround ourselves with and what this reveals about who we are. It’s always exciting when you find a new author and I’m looking forward to reading more of her work.

Writing

Talking of Hunter she wrote a brilliant blog about writing spaces. I think this line is so interesting: ‘The strange thing about the act of writing and the writer’s environment is the way in which the writer is both present and absent in that space – how writing imaginatively necessitates a kind of leave-taking, an untethering.’ Read the full article here.

Celebration

This month lots of lovely things have been happening to some of my favourite people and I’m very excited for them. I think it’s really important to celebrate all the good things that happen for you and other people as well as the smaller, everyday things that could easily be taken for granted. Make a list today of ten great things in your life that are worth celebrating.

Three things to look forward to in March:

Easter

Pastel Colours

Spring walks

 

What have been some of the highlights of your February? What are you looking forward to in March?