Growing and leaning into self

Every morning, I'd wake early, the sky still dressed in a blue and gritty light, visit the sheep, then make coffee, sit outside, and think. Sometimes, I’d just sit. Watching the day grow bright. The vista of ocean and sky surrounding. The varieties of quiet. In open space, I am able to lift the guardrails of reason and productivity that pen in the... See more

You try while others watch and wait. The embarrassment passes, the experience remains. The discomfort disappears, and you grow. Sometimes you have to blaze the trail before others can walk comfortably on it.

i know i don’t want it anymore, but there’s still tenderness in remembering. you can miss something deeply while knowing you’ve stepped beyond it.

i used to think that outgrowing meant failure. that if a job or a friendship or even an identity no longer fit, it was because i hadn’t tried hard enough to hold on or make it work. now i see it differently: outgrowing means you listened closely. you let yourself expand, even when it was inconvenient. you listened to the whisper. you honoured the... See more

saying no to what once defined you. saying yes to things that feel embarrassingly simple but deeply yours: walks, books, roasts in the oven, mornings that don’t rush.

But this can't just be another autumn resolution written in your journal, which you'll abandon anyway because you realize it will require months or years of working on it.

How much of what you know about yourself is influenced by what you have heard? How much of it is true, and how much is just a vision you are trying to reach?

Ideas for my writing never come out of nowhere, but instead are a reflection of the strands of work that I am reading, listening, and reflecting on at any given time.

and that’s what i think so many of us are longing for now: a life stitched together from small rituals, cups of tea that go cold on the counter, slow mornings and early nights, shelves of novels read for no reason except delight. afternoons that stretch quietly, plants to tend to on the windowsill, bread rising on the counter, a circle of people... See more