Winter simplicity...

 

This morning I've been thinking about simple. This post was going to have another name, but after hearing Dee Williams talk about voluntary simplicity during her interview with Jay Shafer at the Tiny House Jamboree this year, I realised that simple is where I want to be. Something about adding the word voluntary in front of simplicity, wakes me up. I often create complex situations, when I could choose simple. But where some things can just be thrown off, others feel as though they need to be untangled and let go carefully.

As I look back on this year, I can see simplicity beginning to weave its way though my life. There are still some knots, and I made those myself. Especially towards the end of the year. For the best part of 20 years now, I have been talking about a creative business of some kind. I can't believe it's been so long. But it's true. Always feeling like it was just around the corner. That I somehow couldn't get to it. Perhaps I made it too complicated. Now I can't be sure what it is. I feel I maybe in the last throws of something that might need to be released. Maybe its enough to just be creative, and get on with life.

Right now, this winter I am off social media. I am here, and that feels enough. I'm not sure what to do with it yet. I'm trying to be more present in my life, have the attention to give the things I don't want to ignore or procrastinate over any longer. It's like wanting to show up and deal with knitty gritty, so it can get done and....then.... life can feel more simple ( I hope) I have a hit list, it's long. But at some point, you need to get down to it. Maybe it's the unravelling. Maybe it's just life ;-)

So this winter holiday I will try and choose simple. I've decided not to send cards this year. Big breath out. I had a great idea for making that will just have to wait until next year. Starting from today, I plan on bringing back in my daily stretching and meditation. Even just a few minutes. I will venture out at the quiet times. I will drink hot chocolate in the evenings and sit next to my tree in the candlelit mornings. I will give myself the time to reflect on the things I do want to choose next year. I hope to back here soon. I do like it here. Hope your week goes well.

♥  

   

                                                                                 

life lessons and inspiration...

sunlight and daffodils

Thank you for all your kind words on my last post about my poncho!

The above photo is really the sunniest I could find this week. The daffodils were given to me by one of my hardy cabin folks on the day of her three year anniversary of living here. Which is really rather sweet considering right now she wakes up to this in the morning.

a cold and frosty morning

It looks freezing doesn't it, but she seems to like it and be able to cope! I think it toughens you up. I feel quite spoilt living in the house sometimes.

frosty!

It's been a strange old week here. A week of the most intense sensitivity and soul searching. Which has just suddenly lifted and moved on, leaving me wondering what happened, where it went.

I talked about sensitivity in my finding my way through January post. I wanted to know what it wanted? well I had a light bulb moment after that. It's really quite simple, it wants me to make a boundary. Well of course you might think. But it's just never been that obvious to me. So when I feel like that, I need to make a boundary. It could be with someone, or within my environment, or even with nice people. The point is, it needs to be heard and not ignored.

Sensitivity has been there all week. I saw my mentor and then felt so overwhelmed all I could do was go home and curl up on the floor next to the radiator in a kind of den with my dog. But you know that's what I needed to do, and I felt better for it than if I had tried to carry on. Sometimes things speak really loudly so that they can be heard. Sometimes I'm not so good at listening. For me it's a kind of struggle with processing, which can easily lead to overwhelm. I think my son struggles with the same thing but copes with it in a different way.

It's been the lesson of this winter for me. So I will learn to make boundaries when I need to. Stop and change things if sensitivity starts to make itself heard. This is a huge life lesson for me. Which is why I'm sharing this here.

sunlight and tiny glass bottles ♥

I need to make friends with sensitivity because it has much wisdom and insight to impart, and that's a good thing.

And so I'm listening, and something seems to have suddenly shifted. I'm looking around at the things that inspire me again, the things that uplift me. I want to connect. I've spent a bit of time bringing facebook to life again. My personal and mylittleredsuitcase page. Made some old connections, remembered a part of who I used to be. In a good way. In a boundaried way, that I feel comfortable with, and with folks who make me feel comfortable.

My most inspiring and uplifting thing this week has been discovering, this track by the singer Laleh a Swedish singer.

I love the dancing. Something about it touches me deeply. The tears flowed in a good way. I just keep watching it. The body is a vehicle of expression. I want to be a dancer. Still! My soul is dancing with them. Please watch!

♥

PS. Also I have popped some new things in my SHOP!

  

a cabin in the garden

Would you like to live in a cabin in the garden here, in the snow?

All year round, I have a lovely resident living in this cabin. There are some hardy cabin folk indeed living in these parts!

Today I had a little message to come for tea. So nice to visit a cabin in the snow!

It was bright in the cabin as the light reflected off the snow all around and it certainly was toasty in this little place, I think the burner will have to keep going all day today.

a glimpse of another life, a simple life. Closer to nature, the trees and the birds as neighbours. A place to reflect and be quieter. And also a good internet connection!

this snow was quite deep, a sudden snowfall over night. Schools and roads closed, it feels as though we are somewhere else.

here is the winter landscape this morning. With more snow to come. Keep warm and well and don't forget to feed the birds!

have a warm and toasty weekend,

Heather