Photo by Noemí Jiménez on Unsplash
Today I sit here between two Passion Planners — a tattered more ragged red one from 2022 crammed with my writing and what was scheduled to happen over the past 12 months while what didn’t happen is blacked out.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve reflected on 2022. I have skimmed through the monthly calendars and actual accomplishments I listed at the end of each week and month in the worn red planner. Overall, it feels like a fulfilling and satisfying year.
All the while, though, my pristine 2023 planner, mostly blank white pages has sat luringly by, beckoning me to open her … to begin to brainstorm programs and classes and bucket list dreams … to set client times and dates for classes and vacations ... a normally strong temptation for an entrepreneur.
But I don’t open her. I can’t. I leave her there waiting patiently in her state of perfection — a blank slate to author the next chapter of my life. In the quiet of this morning, I ask myself, what am I waiting for?
Is my perfectionism creeping in by wanting to avoid crossing out events?
Is it a younger part that shows up as a commitment phobe? (Yes, I’ve been there!)
Do I still think I have to have it all figured out before I take a step?
The answer to my contemplation arrives as a strong, “No, none of those.” I realize there is a part of me still reveling in the liminal space between the old year and the new. A part that needs to continue to cultivate the stillness where potentially and possibilities lie … in this – the unknown found in the space "betwixt and between."
You may be ready to jump into 2023, either personally, professionally, or both. That’s great! You are in tune with society's vision of the New Year. Man created the Gregorian calendar around which the world functions. But … this calendar we operate by has nothing to do with cycles of the natural world.
With Winter Solstice behind in the northern hemisphere, the days are beginning to slowly lengthen. However, nature is still in winter, and winter is just the beginning of the creative cycle.
I long to linger here in this quiet void where I can deepen into the sense of aliveness that is beginning to stir during this womb of winter. I am choosing to listen with curiosity to what wants to come through me during the upcoming year – rather than rush this process. This year, I plan to allow it to unfold in the timing that is right for me. Then I will open my 2023 planner, allowing myself to be pulled in by the flow of natural rhythms.
Ayurveda, the 5,000 year old system of health care and wellbeing, teaches us that by aligning our cycles with the energy flow of nature we actually flow with the fullest and truest expression of our self in all areas of life. The result is much less stress and anxiety. (You can read more about Ayurveda here: https://dianshirley.com/blog-1/2017/3/22/fall-in-love-with-ayurveda)
So if you’re not ready to plunge ahead in this moment, there’s nothing wrong with you. Maybe you are hearing a deeper call to attune to the natural cycles. Sooner or later, I venture to say, that happens to all of us; then we can choose how we want to respond.
If this is you, though, consider that this is your permission slip to stay here … to pause, to breathe deeply, and slow down as you let go of any push energy – any outside influences. Tune into what your heart is longing for. Honor yourself exactly where you are now … feel yourself held … and enjoy ...
“The secret of living life from vitality is in the rest and recovery.”
~ Lindsay Davis, Lindsay Davis Coaching
With love,
Dian