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Jenn H's avatar

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!

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Kelton Wright's avatar

I'm heading to Ohio in late April and I'm looking forward to the smell of that region in spring!

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Nic Antoinette's avatar

"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.

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Kelton Wright's avatar

Is this why I heard your plans and was like, "sounds awesome." 😂

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Nic Antoinette's avatar

We're doing GREAT.

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Mark Burge's avatar

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!”.

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Kelton Wright's avatar

😂😂😂

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Holly Rabalais's avatar

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. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Kelton Wright's avatar

Revel in the mess with me!

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Kara Norman's avatar

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 😂

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Kelton Wright's avatar

I'm with you in the compost 🙏

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Madeline's avatar

Growth really can be a bitch!

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Madeline's avatar

(And I love me a boss bitch)

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Sara's avatar

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.

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Kelton Wright's avatar

😂 reminds me of when I worked for a company that’s internal slogan was “good enough sucks” - very different

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Noemie Andrusier's avatar

i raised my kids on the slogan "pretty good is good enough", perfectionism is the enemy of growth

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Tracey Whicker's avatar

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

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Kelton Wright's avatar

That sounds a bit like LA. There *are* seasons but boy are they subtle.

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Sarah Lavender Smith's avatar

I love & relate to this week's column, thank you!

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Israel Sanchez's avatar

Cheers to a new mud season!

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Teagan Seman's avatar

Love the is idea 💡

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Sheeby's avatar

This arrived at exactly the moment I needed it. Thank you 💗

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Heather's avatar

Oof, the pressure of "enough" is the worst. Thank you for lots to think about during this mud season!

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Jessy Easton's avatar

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!

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Kelton Wright's avatar

Appreciate you. (And owe you some writing.)

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Jade's avatar

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).

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Kelton Wright's avatar

Love that.

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Amy Marie Turner's avatar

I'm going to be singing this to Depeche Mode all damn day as I flail through my own Mud Season.

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Kelton Wright's avatar

😂 oh I love that.

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