a gasp of spring air
new year & new starts sounded like a good idea
A quarter of the way through 2025, and we’re well into a good year’s worth of what the heck.
Starting a personal post like this, I would normally say never mind all the politics/world news but right now it’s impossible to never mind. It’s everywhere. It’s everything. And we have to pay attention. The current world events colour nearly every activity, whether we wish it to or not. The added mental load of wars, corruption and instability is an entirely separate post but it adds weight to every day life.
On top of that, the first few months of 2025 around here have been a lot of every day life.
You know how - in your head - you come home after work, have dinner, hang out and maybe do a chore or two? Even if that’s not entirely true, it’s close enough on enough days that you can find a pattern or a little organization in the chaos? I’m looking forward to that.
New year, new figurative family
After closing 2024 confirming that our son had a date for a planned surgery and that our little senior dog needed a few meds, we went into 2025 feeling in control. Everyone was on their way to feeling better!
Feeling better requires effort.
That’s the dumbest rule ever, but here we are.
after a very successful surgery, our son’s at home recovery still needed management of multiple medications that kept us up multiple times a night for a few weeks, in addition to physical support and check ups. effort = effective recovery
our little senior dog’s new medications helped and more diagnoses confirmed that she, too, needed major surgery. In her case, it was to remove two different types of cancerous growths. Just as our kid was coming back up for unmedicated air, our pup went in for lumpectomies and reconstructive surgery on her muzzle and abdomen, followed by another few weeks of frequent medications, lots of coddling and care. Lumps gone, incisions healed beautifully. effort = effective recovery.
despite the seeming ridiculousness of it, I agreed to my yoga app’s new year challenge of a daily practice. I knew I’d need the self care during all this, but idea of adding something at this point felt hysterically laughable. So I did something it’s taken me my full 50 years to figure out: I let myself do a mere 10 minutes a day.1 And, I’ll be damned if it didn’t make a difference. Just 10 minutes a day made a noticeable difference in my sanity and my back and hip pain. even tiny efforts = effective recovery
We are now in a place to take a breath.2
New year, new people family
But why stop there? I made the mistake of joking to a friend that all of these surgeries, a very busy time at the office and the state of world was enough for now, thank you.
And so later that week, my son’s friend from high school days moved in.
Maintaining a good environment requires effort.
This is also annoying. There is no one and done. Sure, my home, life or schedule might be “done” in the moment, but stagnancy does little good in any scenario. And, as in the ways of world, if I won’t change on my own, the world will bring the change about to me.
Now, my son’s friend needed a place to stay in sudden circumstances and there was absolutely no question at all that they could stay with us. This has led to an equally sudden de-camping of our lingering COVID home office arrangements that - until now - hadn’t demanded attention. In 2020 our spare room and basement were commandeered for school and work life, and that has continued to suit us just fine. After a few small prods that we could easily sidestep, we face the rather brutish reminder that we could do with a spare room.
My son’s friend gets a safe place to stay. We move furniture around and we plan a trip to Ikea. We reclaim parts of our house that faded away over the past five years. safe and solid spaces = effort.
I’m not sure which facets of the universe were listening the day I made the fateful claim that life was enough, but apparently I needed both
a little more effort in my environment to ensure my own ongoing wellness while
connecting the well-being of others in the process.
safe and solid spaces for one = safe and solid spaces for all.
My son’s friend is now in a space to take a breath.
Spring as the season of growth
Spring is, of course, the season of growth and change. New crops and plants are budding, and new babies are in the farmers’ fields. We have more sunlight and we’re dusting off the winter cobwebs.
What can easily turn into a season of more - more activity, more plans, more goals and, in this year, more world news to process - brings with it the need to ensure more moments of less. more moments of breath.
My sanity is being recaptured in small sessions of near nothingness. Ten minutes of yoga. Three minutes of mindful breathing3. The occasional glass of wine. The occasional nap. Gasps of self-care.
There are gasps of a drowning person and there are gasps of don’t forget to breath. They don’t always look or feel any different, but they come from a very critical different place of awareness and at least a modicum of control. They take a small effort, and the latter is a requirement to prevent the former4.
Gasp
In whatever this season brings you, I wish you your gasps as well. The water in the face, cold plunge, gasp of spring air, figurative smack from the universe, glass of wine, singing bowl meditation that keeps you connected to your context, change and courage.
to date I would have never thought I was “doing” yoga if it was not at least 30 minutes and preferably an hour. The idea that 10 minutes could qualify was just ridiculous. The fact that it actually made a significant difference has just made me feel a bit ridiculous. My massage therapist is a saint for biting what must have been a massive I told you so bubbling up when I confessed the success of tiny efforts resulting in positive shifts.
and get a full night of sleep
I’ve used word prompts as short mindful moments for years and have started sharing them slowly on Insight Timer. Sometimes, all anyone needs is three minutes.
I shared more ideas to support personal energy and systems on my main dot matrix newsletter (Spring cleaning - Mar 27, 2025). Subscribing is free and you get access to twice monthly group distance Reiki sessions and key concepts and reflections to work with your best personal management systems and transformations.