Mud season is when you can smell the earth again, instead of just the snow.
Here in southern Pennsylvania, there are no leaves on deciduous trees and won't be for weeks yet, but flowers + flowering trees are out. The witch hazel bloomed first, as it always does, such tiny stars of flowers that most people don't even notice. Spring will come to you--it's inevitable!
We have a saying similar to your “enough”. When someone (who’s fought to keep their head above water) is dutifully saying what they “should” have done, we respond with “Don’t ‘should’ on yourself!”.
Meanwhile, here in the southern states we are fully in glorious spring--yet I can’t get a single thing in my life back into shape!😂 The house is a wreck, I haven’t seen my kids in <ridiculous amount of time>, and I can’t find my motivation for anything! Normally I am back to my old, productive self by March, but this year I am just a mess still. 🤷🏻♀️
On the word enough - it made me think of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry says "It's not just good, it's good enough." and that is what I tell myself when perfectionism starts to creep in.
Oh how I have loved reading this piece, everything about it! Trying to embrace all the different seasons here in the UK but being in the South, it’s nowhere near as dramatic. The vision of wind and snow arguing reminds me more of my roots in the Orkney Islands xx
Beautiful. I love all of this so much. Embrace the mess. Such vital advice. So excited for you and all the plans you shared... the book that is hopefully going to be coming along, the baby, the puppy—I’m here for all of it!
i remember when my yoga teacher said “the first herald of spring is mud.” i always say that to myself when i am in the slog. today in my memories an anne lamott quote came up- “they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born --and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.” (she was talking about sitting next to a man on a train who works for the dalai lama).
Mud season is when you can smell the earth again, instead of just the snow.
Here in southern Pennsylvania, there are no leaves on deciduous trees and won't be for weeks yet, but flowers + flowering trees are out. The witch hazel bloomed first, as it always does, such tiny stars of flowers that most people don't even notice. Spring will come to you--it's inevitable!
"How bored do you have to be to think all of this is a good idea."
*checks her own unhinged summer plans/fantasies*
DRAG ME, KELTON.
We have a saying similar to your “enough”. When someone (who’s fought to keep their head above water) is dutifully saying what they “should” have done, we respond with “Don’t ‘should’ on yourself!”.
Meanwhile, here in the southern states we are fully in glorious spring--yet I can’t get a single thing in my life back into shape!😂 The house is a wreck, I haven’t seen my kids in <ridiculous amount of time>, and I can’t find my motivation for anything! Normally I am back to my old, productive self by March, but this year I am just a mess still. 🤷🏻♀️
Really needed this! My heart my mind my body are all piles of sludge right now. Hoping something fertile is brewing in there because it’s a gd mess 😂
Growth really can be a bitch!
On the word enough - it made me think of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry says "It's not just good, it's good enough." and that is what I tell myself when perfectionism starts to creep in.
Oh how I have loved reading this piece, everything about it! Trying to embrace all the different seasons here in the UK but being in the South, it’s nowhere near as dramatic. The vision of wind and snow arguing reminds me more of my roots in the Orkney Islands xx
I love & relate to this week's column, thank you!
Cheers to a new mud season!
Love the is idea 💡
This arrived at exactly the moment I needed it. Thank you 💗
Oof, the pressure of "enough" is the worst. Thank you for lots to think about during this mud season!
Beautiful. I love all of this so much. Embrace the mess. Such vital advice. So excited for you and all the plans you shared... the book that is hopefully going to be coming along, the baby, the puppy—I’m here for all of it!
i remember when my yoga teacher said “the first herald of spring is mud.” i always say that to myself when i am in the slog. today in my memories an anne lamott quote came up- “they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born --and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.” (she was talking about sitting next to a man on a train who works for the dalai lama).
I'm going to be singing this to Depeche Mode all damn day as I flail through my own Mud Season.