spring stirrings
online classes: 'woo the muse' and 'root + write'
The sea smelt different today. More briney. More like sunshine. The birds have been ducking and diving through the budding lilac. Flirty twirtling adorning the morning freshness.
I’m walking a lot at the moment.
To sweat and stomp up hills burns off some of the adrenaline that arrives in the pre-dawn hours.
There is much to think about and do and stay awake to. And the body needs acclimatising time. The brain needs to not be fuelled with fizz so much that is drives itself into spinning action.
Fear upon fear.
Repeat to fade.
I can only begin to woo the muse that helps guide my making, words, work, actions when I take time to give my inner world what it needs.
Imperfectly.
Haphazardly.
Trial and error.
Sometimes the muse seeks fire and pointed words. Sometimes it demands solitude and to weep with the crows.
An ebb and flow. Listening out for when to pause and when to move.
Paying attention to this inner world is an act of survival. Walking is an act of survival. Writing is an act of survival.
The metrics of success have shifted and everything is in question.
This last year I have been sitting in the question: WHAT IF I DIDN’T HAVE TO PROVE MYSELF TO ANYONE, WHAT WOULD I DO THEN?
I come back to unraveling brain and body on the path and page.
This is what guides me through the day. (Most days. Some days.) Clumsily, potently, wholeheartedly fortifying action and connection.
On the other days, I am learning to surrender to the imperfection of coping strategies. The scroll and scran. To be kind to that bit too. To know I can go again tomorrow.
Or not.
There is nothing shiny and sorted here.
But there is practice, and the intention to bring kindness, and a constant shifting.
I welcome you here. Come join if you would like to connect.
Full permission to bring your haphazard, clumsy, brilliant, messy self.
🔆Offerings🔆
A pair of upcoming Spring classes ‘Woo the Muse’ and ‘Root + Write’.
This class is for you if:
Would like to take some time for yourself, to pause and reflect on the Winter that is slowly leaving and the emerging Spring.
Would love some guidance on how to do “the things”, in kind, supportive, and supported ways.
Are looking for some support in starting a new creative project, picking up an old one, or working out (or simply giving permission to) what it is you would like to explore more.
Are curious about practices that can help us to “woo the muse” and call in the support that we need and desire with our projects and lives.
For further information + booking:
I have been filling pages with words for 25 years. I use writing as a daily way to connect with myself, and their inner and outer seasonality, organise my thoughts, connect with body and place, and plot and plan my projects. In this series of classes, you will receive experienced guidance, warm cheerleading, and a gentle invitation to show up as you are.
This class is for anyone curious about using writing to root and connect. Together we will make space to pause, rest, and listen more deeply, alongside tending to our active writing/artist/maker/doer/thinker/feeler projects and practices.
With full permission to write the worst sh*it in the world!
Beginners, dreamers, and the wordily curious are super welcome.
This course includes:
3 x live online sessions via ZOOM
a Notion page of writing practice resources and recorded session links (access available for 6 months after the live course)
a community space for conversation and support outside of live sessions, via Substack
For further information and booking:
One last thing, I am putting together - with the awesome help of Lotus, my tech savvy assistant - is a beautiful year-long, turn of the seasons, offering with the rebirth of COLOUR COMMUNITY around the Spring Equinox in March. We are getting together the final details at the moment, alongside growing a delicious home for all of the NATURAL INK. lessons online.
This will be a small group of folks meandering together through the seasons, making ink and other organic art supplies, tending our creative practices and the land and communities in which we live.
With plenty of space and support for the full turn of the cycle, inwardly and outwardly.
I am excited to bring all of these offerings to you and to get to meet, make, write and explore with you. Community and support are at the core of these spaces, and I know that we need these things more and more, as we peel back the layers of ingested hyper-individualising systems we have grown up under. Tending our capacity for creativity, and personal and collective care brings more and more of what we long for this world into being.
Drop me a message to express your interest in hearing more about the COLOUR COMMUNITY and I will send over further details when available.
I will be sharing more about this over the weeks to come, and I thank you for being here.
Warmly,
-KJ
🌿g e n t l e a t t e n t i o n🌿
🌿This illuminating conversation between philosopher, writer, teacher and post-activist Bayo Akomolafe (Ph.d) and Entangled World host and inter-systems thinker Najia Shaulkat Lupson.
Entangled World explores our greatest, interrelated social, economic, ecological, and technological global challenges, their underlying drivers, and how a more beautiful world might emerge.
🌿West Wales Folks - A march is happening this Saturday 10th February in Swansea to support the Free Palestine movement and call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Meeting in castle square at 12.30pm.
🌿Online Buddhafield 2-week Buddhist meditation and elemental practice retreat (morning meditations and evening talks/events) At Home With The Elements: Voices of the Rain starts this Sunday 11th February. Come to individual sessions, one particular element of the who two weeks.
Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them. Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.
Robin Wall Kimmerer - Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. 2013