Hello You, Hello 2015

Well hello there and Happy New Year!

I hope the holidays treated you well, dearest.

I am easing into 2015 at a gentle pace.

I've been reflecting on the year past with curiosity, compassion and gratitude, gently entertaining which things I want to bring forth into the new year and which ones I'm ready to leave behind. It's a slow process.

Today I completed my yearly ritual of choosing new calendars. The pickings at the store were slim, but I found an eclectic mix featuring birds, Darth Vader, and female rulers of the world (like Marie Antoinette, below).

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I love this ritual, and this year's variety of calendars makes me grin and chuckle.

I hope 2015 brings something to make you grin and chuckle too.

May your new year be fabulous, may it be peace-filled, may it be joy-full.

May it be true.

Happy 2015.

Stephanie

xo

Unhurried Spaciousness

PREAMBLE

For months, words have been escaping me.

Life has been full and engaging in a deeply transformative way and I have so much to process, so much I want to write about and share. The concepts and ideas are forming in my head and in the pages of my journal, but the words just aren't making their way to the page - or here - quite yet. I am choosing to trust this process and its timeline.

But today... today for the first time in months I felt compelled to write because of the two words that title this blog post. They spoke to me that strongly. So I chose to trust that inkling too and show up at the keyboard tonight. It simply feels right.

Don't you love it when that happens?

~~~

“Unhurried spaciousness.” The words on the page stopped me in my tracks.*

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the birds have been an incredible healing presence for me this year, watching them is a favourite activity

Unhurried spaciousness is what I’ve been seeking, creating and living these past several months. It’s what I seek, create and live today.

After a few intense years bursting at the seams with action, new experiences and leaps out of my comfort zone it shouldn't surprise me that unhurried spaciousness is exactly what this year called for.

Though my head and ego clamour for plans, goals and visible accomplishments, my body and soul deeply crave open schedules, stillness and an organic unfolding of things. I humbly bow to the latter.

This year has unfolded slowly and close to home, sometimes frustratingly so, but when I look at it through the lens of unhurried spaciousness, labels like “lame” or “lazy” or “complacent” melt away and acceptance settles in.

Unhurried spaciousness. I’m more than OK with that.

Thank you Ms Kondo for passing along these words that so eloquently capture my experience. I am grateful.

~~~

*  I encountered these words in a fabulous little book called the life-changing magic of tidying up - the Japanese are of decluttering and organizing, by Marie Kondo.