I will tell anyone who listens that January is not the time to begin new projects, start new habits, or create new routines. It’s the dead of winter. And while that’s true, and I’ve certainly been surrendering to the slowness and rest that it feels like this season is calling for. I have also felt an internal shift, a beckoning, to do, to create, and seek out more. I think it was inevitable, in the way there is always a pendulum swing from one season to the next. After winter, spring always comes. It’s the natural rhythm of things.
After spending much of the past year taking some intentional time off to explore, study, and generally do a whole lot less, I feel like I have new wind under my sails with fresh insights. It’s my nature to want to rush to do everything all at once, but I’m trying and failing to temper myself.
It feels really good to be back in LA, mostly. I could do without the traffic and the pollution, but here is where I find myself, so here is where I’m going to be. It feels good to be back in community with so many of the people I love the most. It feels good to know that the sun will shine more days than it won’t. It feels good to feel the familiar warmth of my books, clothes, and favorite tea mug that I’ve been apart from for so long. It feels good to be home. Maybe home is as much a physical place as it is a feeling.
So here we are. How is this new year treating you so far? Do you feel the urge to do a complete overhaul the moment the calendar changes to January 1? Or do you align more with the fresh start of spring?
At the end of every month I’m going to be sharing some of my highlights as a way to mark the passage of time, celebrate the good stuff, and connect with you all.
I’m calling it The Good Stuff, because we could all use a little more good. I’ve grown to really love when other newsletters do this (Julia Dionne has a great one with phenomenal book recs for my readers).
I’ve always been a curious person, since the moment I got to this earth. I think the little details about how a person spends their time, what they enjoy doing, reading, eating and listening to, actually tells you a lot about a person. It’s like having a peek behind the curtain. It feels authentic and silly and cute. I think the appeal of this sort of thing is that it satiates our curiosity about each other, and how cute is that to think that we want to know the intimate details of another human’s life.
JANUARY’S GOOD STUFF:
Ending 2023 and beginning 2024 with Thee Sacred Souls with Maranda 🌹 We had so much fun dancing and singing to the album that felt like the soundtrack to this whirlwind past year together and it was such a great way to close one chapter and begin another.
Celebrating Maranda’s birthday with a day at the spa and our favorite brunch spot.
Celebrating Kwanzaa with my family, something my mom has been wanting to do for years and we always kind of fall off. It’s really such a beautiful tradition and it felt good to read and talk about all the principles with each other. We culminated the week with a feast and talked about our intentions for the new year.
An 80 degree beach day in January felt illegal and certainly has dangerous implications for our planet, but man, was it a treat.
Teaching a new weekly class at my favorite yoga studio in LA!
Catching up with family and friends after months of being away.
Vision boarding – my girl Candace and I’s yearly tradition. It really sets the tone for the year and the physical practice of collaging brings out my inner child.
*not really a highlight but there is a silver lining* Getting covid at said concert. Rick Rubin talks about how entering a feverish state is similar to being deep in a meditation because of the heightened awareness and physical embodiment. You know when you read something and think wow that perfectly verbalizes a feeling that I’ve always felt but never had the language for. That’s exactly how being sick feels for me. Even when I’m feeling miserable there’s a weird meditative sense of peace that washes over me. So, I spent the first week of the year in a covid induced trance, basically.
Working through some of my limited beliefs around career, calling, and money. It turns out I really am in my own way. Damn it, not again.
Listening to my Q1 reading in the Chani App (You Were Born For This)
What made your month better? I want to know.
If you’re in LA come to my class at The Tree every Tuesday at 7:30am ☀️