Oh Hello Spring

Seasons. They’re one of those things that dip from a noun into a verb quite easily in my conversations. Winter is a place, a mindset, a bookmark, a thing. It’s also (for me a least) an action or lack of action, to avoid. Winter is to hibernate, to rest, to settle. Autumn is to shed and remove with gratitude. Summer is to play (right?!), and spring is to renew, begin again, and hope for things to come.

I’ve ditched the new year resolutions thing. It felt too performative and not intentional enough for me. Well, let me clarify. Making changes, investing in growth and reflecting on the year prior are wonderful things, but I needed it to be… shorter -- sustainable, I suppose is the word. So I’ve shaved the New Year Resolutions bit down to one word (a verb) to really hone in and focus (which isn’t the word "by-the-way"), and I’ve shortened the duration to 3 months, seasons, instead of a full year. Who knows, maybe I’ll one day find the patience and endurance to practice one word a year, but for now, 3 months is gonna have to do. But this is not my own idea. I’ve adopted this little practice from a guy on the internet and have been faithful to it for the last three seasons; yeah, I like it.

We're well into a month of spring, ahem, my favorite season for lots of reasons, but I’ll share just one with you today. You know that feeling you get when you’ve just walked out of a freezing cold room and right into the sunshine. The warmth of the sun defrosts your skin. That feeling. sigh… I love that feeling. And to me, that’s spring. I’ve been miserably cold and spring awakens those deaden nerves and I feel warm again. Like eating chocolate. Warms the soul.

So my verb of this season is ✨ ESTABLISH ✨.

I looked at my list of words: learn, share, give, fly, grow, nourish, pursue, endure, inspire, imagine, define, unite, serve, read, veil, listen, and so on. Establish bounced out at me, grabbed me. So I wrote it down and began to think about what 3 months of establish would actually mean? Like read or learn, those verbs have quite obvious steps and goals: read 20 books this season, start a book club, or read all of Stephen King’s works (can this even be done in a single season??). But establish, hmm…, I brooded and dwelt and marinated.

This spring season, I’ll focus on establishing routines. I want to plant roots--deep, sustainable roots--in friendships, in stories, and in my marriage. I want to establish a routine that produces love 🙂 and hope 🙂

My goals (I’ll just center around storytelling in this space to keep friendships private-but hello! to my far-away friends: Becca in Scotland, to Bekkah + Bonnie in Texas, to Claudia in the hill country, to Emma in Connecticut, and Stacy, Fabs, Melissa, Shae, and Jenny in New Orleans):

• Establish a drawing style
• Establish a writing routine for this season (this might be a seasonal task, huh?) - to focus on longer formats of writing
• Establish an audio book recording profile

So, here we go. Establish.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed learning about my seasonal themes in place of new year resolutions. If you enjoyed reading my thoughts you might enjoy this list of some previous thoughts I've had.

Wishing you all the luck in your own resolutions, goals, and themes.