There is an importance of being okay where you are and as who you are along the journey of becoming. This has really struck me this week. We are always in a state of becoming. Even in our last breath, we remain on the journey of becoming. Every day, every season, there are consistent elements of change that are here to show us how to let grace lead us.
As we evolve in our lives, so do many projects, missions, understandings, and relationships. On the topic of creating, we birth ideas, we get to revel in the fresh energy and bask in the joy our love produced. Then we need to allow ourself to grow into a bigger spirit when it is time to surrender it forever, like a wise sage. Each stage of the journey comes packed with humility and integrity.
I walked with Julie Jarvis from Real Things this week, just after she sent the newsletter out to everyone that she was closing the doors of her business. Nobody that puts their heart and soul into a creative endeavour with the the highest of integrity makes this decision lightly. Julie’s meditation cushions are the best I have ever experienced and am grateful to have one among my few possessions. She started Real Things as a long time meditator knowing that a proper cushion is a game changer for practitioners. Her background in the arts, human potential and social justice influenced her ten year commitment to Real Things to be a path of meaning which translated as a gift to us who found their way to her. She will close her online store by the end of April. You can still visit https://www.realthingscushions.com/.
Julie and I talk a lot about being in the pause. A reality that is so familiar to many of us during this pandemic. The pause can either be like a bear’s den, where we hibernate with ease until we enter another season with sustainable life or the pause can be pregnant with stagnant anxieties over the unknown. It’s not so long ago that life was hectic for most of us and the promise of any pause seemed like a dream. Can you relate?
It’s been, in many ways a gift to be this intimate with ourselves, our lives, our loves and our vulnerabilities. It can be raw, tender yet touching, painful and inspiring. It can spark anger yet we may find ourself with a fierce compassion. We have much to thank the pause for. The opportunity to reflect in ways that break new grounds wide open, for one. We may never experience it like this again.
While we were discussing knowing the time for change is in our hands, Julie asked me to share how it was to downsize Mindful Necessities in 2017. We had at that time eight full collections of contemplative jewellery. Every collection was either birthed in a dream or arrived from some powerful waking vision. Every body of work had a message, meaning or purpose that wouldn’t leave me. As a dedicated proud mother of these creations, I was of course attached. After meditating for a long time, I could reflect that a mother’s roll is to launch into the world healthy, balanced children and not to hold their hands forever. As a small enterprise, I wore most of the hats. Keeping eight lines going was simply too much work physically, too much of a mental juggle and too much financial responsibility to sustain any life balance. When grace came, the letting go was done with love and respect for what is and love with immense gratitude for what was.
Witnessing creations, from inception to helping them flower before one's very eyes is an exciting and humbling gift. The more we talked, the more I realized the electrical current was still going through me. To this day, the process of allowing creativity to birth into being makes me joyful. Sharing them with others, makes me even ecstatic. Even since resting most of our work in 2017 to focus on the experiential meditation retreats in Ireland and Italy, creative projects still keep nudging me and sometimes I say yes. It was incredible watching the X ring evolve or feeling a need for ‘this too shall pass’ and ‘everyday grateful’ wrist malas to make their way into the world during this deep reflective time. These projects appeared in a peaceful pause.
The more peace we can bring into the pause, the more clarity will arrive in any outcome. When we give ourselves the opportunity to still the busy mind and rest in the silence that is available to us, life force will find a way to burst through the earth beneath our feet to meet us.
wishing you a glorious Spring day, exactly where and how you are,
