2023 is over! How was it? 

It’s the end of 2023 and this is what I’ve done: As the year began and people celebrated with “Happy New Years!”, fireworks and revelling, I was tucked up in bed all cosy and warm with the intention of doing things my way from now on! New Year, to me, is not a new start, it’s simply the continuation of winter and winter means rest and dreaming, tending to the seeds; for in the dark they are nourished and will germinate. I held fast when others were starting the new year with intention. I just started it slow. As January ended and the Celtic festival of Imbolc took place in February I planted these seeds and set some intentions to grow throughout the spring and summer.

My Intentions:

I will connect with nature and I will listen both to the natural world and to myself. I will live an authentic life and follow my instincts, leaning in to whether something is a clear “Yes” or “No”. I will act for people and the web of life. I will nourish my heart and soul.

These intentions were set as part of a ritual in February and I sat and I listened and I watched and nourished them. I checked in with myself throughout each and every day to ensure I was staying true to them and slowly as the sun got stronger and the weather warmer they began to grow.

Each day I connected with nature. I went outside and sat or walked with her come rain or shine. I breathed her in and observed her wisdom. I gave thanks to everything she does to support me and she sent me signs. She told me what was important and what I should write about and I shared with the world my insights. I wrote poems and stories and blog posts and newspaper columns. Sometimes I shared these widely, other times they were just for me. I learnt to be in the world in a new way, different to how I was before. I became unstuck and saw things for how they really were. The patriarchal bullshit that had permeated my being for the last 46 years dropped away and I became true to myself. In doing so, I created a life that was mine. A true and authentic existence based on being rather than doing. It was a, kind of, apprenticeship in the last few of my menstrual cycling years, to the wise, postmenopausal woman that I will become. The true guardian of this land which I’m called to be.

I said “Yes” to lots of things like the Soul Fire Writing Retreat in April, time with my husband and family and long walks by myself. I said “Yes” to keeping life simple, not filling it with to do lists and activities and my connection with my children deepened. I was there for them in a way I hadn’t been before. I was present. The small things became the big things and I cherished the precious moments like the simplicity of a meal together. Drop-offs and pick- ups became a time to connect and I truly felt like I got into my parenting groove.

I also said “No” to lots of things. In fact, “No” became my word for 2023 and it was said to cleaning and tidying, obligations and ‘shoulds’. I didn’t always go out for meals, just because I was invited, but only if going made my heart sing. I wasn’t perfect, I didn’t try and be everything to everyone as I was busy with the important work of being me. However, when I was with people, I listened and I drank in their wisdom, for I only spent time with those who were wise.

2023 also became the year for rest. Deep and nourishing, I learnt how to listen to my body and surrender to it. I chose the most restful option. I enjoyed long lie-ins and early nights, sunsets and the flicker of flames in my log burner and camp fires. This replenished me, in a way that numbing myself with TV screens and social media scrolls never could.

During all this time I wrote (when I wanted to): a newspaper column each month, a story on the Soul Fire Retreat (about this better way of being in the world within a futuristic new system), I journaled and took my notebook out with me on walks and camper van adventures. I wrote things I was proud of and shared them on my blog, submitted them to magazines and some of them were published. I’ve ended 2023 with a sense of groundedness and a growing confidence in my writing, grateful to everyone, human and more than human, who had helped and inspired me.

How was your 2023?

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