Blossom appreciation
And a couple of questions
A enormous thank you to everyone who has joined me recently in this space, it’s a pleasure to have you here. I’m in the midst of the Easter Holiday work/children/life juggle and I hope to be back more consistently in the coming weeks, in the meantime, here are a few fleeting thoughts and I have a couple of questions I would love to hear your answers to…
Walking through London with my family last week, we revisited old haunts and memories of a life lived before. Everywhere we turned there was a flash of pink or white and I couldn’t help but smile. Bright brilliant bursts of blossom out in full force.
It was London at its most seductive, pavements laden with near-perfect petals still defiant even in decay, pubs spilling out with people and the parks humming and fizzing with families and friends making the most of the sunshine.
It was a flash of London that I long for and I felt the familiar tug of missing the city and the gorgeous people who live there.
It was also an experience of taking older children to London, who are growing up and letting go. I watched as they strode down the streets determined to walk alone and felt a sense of the everyday quiet accumulation of paper-cut-like grief that hums alongside my motherhood. They no longer want to walk alongside me, let alone hold my hand.
As I watched both my children holding the hands of their tiny toddler cousins and saw just how much they now tower above those tiny tots, a wistful longing to slow down time nipped at my edges and made me teary. It was a moment that no photo could do justice to, one of those fleeting times, just like when blossom falls, that I wish to capture, hold and keep safe. A moment of budding and blossoming and quietly letting go all at once.
Back home now, the pre-teen moods have returned, the sixth load of washing is waiting to be folded away and I’m looking at the unanswered emails in my inbox with a twitchy eye.
And yet…
The desire to write and make a time and space for my creative work is shouting loud and proud in my ear… So often that desire arrives when I am struggling to make time for things.
I’ve been trying to carve out a small pocket each day to spend time with my words, using my own Small Acts of Attention cards to remind myself to take a moment.
Even if I don’t actually manage to write, they are a kind reminder to take note and sit for a while.
The night we arrived back home, I pulled a very apt set of cards that made me smile…
(A little side note on the Small acts of Attention cards…. The first batch of cards sold out so quickly, I am so eternally grateful to each and every person who has bought some and it brings me such joy seeing them out in the wild and in use. You can now pre-order a set and for anyone who orders, you’ll also get access to a free workshop next week, which you can either join live or watch the replay.)