Dear Friends,
Thank you for your springtime photos, reflections and notes. Through April, we’re considering Awakenings that we experience, big and small. Noticing, breathing in the landscape around us and inside of us.
This week, I literally stumbled onto a new bridge.
I took it as a metaphor.
To explain: the bridge is in a park in my neighborhood where I walk all of the time. Through the fall and winter, that part of the park was closed off by construction vehicles, a big project going on. I hadn’t paid attention to what exactly they were doing or when construction would be over. I’d walked down to the other side of that creek in the park a few weeks ago and the trucks were still there.
Then, on an afternoon when I was feeling at a loss about a number of significant things in my life, I came to the open bridge.
It felt amazing to discover it. To cross it. To feel it. To imagine that new pathways are everywhere.
I felt my energy change.
***
I found another bridge this week.
I reached out to someone through Facebook messenger, not someone especially close to me, a person I know because I was in school with her husband twenty-some years ago and at that time, we all hung out together. She’s a lovely human and we have stayed connected over the years through comments and conversations and occasional emails.
She’s been living with a very difficult illness that impacts her life in a serious way for some time and she shares honestly about her experience. When I see her name come up, I think of her and send her love but on that day I realized that maybe I should tell her that, that from my distance, I acknowledge her suffering and strength and am with her.
I sent her a short message sending her love and she wrote back to me I know that you understand how complicated life can get sometimes.
I wrote back: I really can. Human life! I feel so much holiness from the brokenness I’ve experienced and the resilience and grace I’ve discovered but I also wish for things to be easier at times.
That was it. Our exchange, that moment of witnessing each other, was also a bridge to understanding. Writing—whether the kind of expressive writing that I share here or simple exchanges like that one—allows me to awaken experiences and deep emotions and occasional wisdom. Writing makes me feel less isolated and allows me to hold myself and my life with greater compassion.
I hope that this practice does the same for you.
Bridges can—and do—appear.
Share your comments, responses or landscape photos each week or email them to me at gabriellekm@gmail.com~anytime.
Writing Practice: Set aside 5-7 minutes for this practice. Write in a journal or open a ‘Journey with The Season’ document where you can return each Sunday.
Thinking over your week, consider ‘bridge’ experiences that you’ve had…moments that helped you to see a new path or way forward. Moments of connection with the landscape around you—with flowers and rocks, with humans, with animal friends. A connection with your shadow, with your potential, with a part of yourself that you’ve forgotten about.
Make a list of three-five of these moments of connection.
Pick one and describe it in detail. When did this moment happen? Where were you? What feelings were evoked?
Deepening Practice:
Reach out to someone you’ve been thinking of. It doesn’t need to be someone who is going through a challenge, it could be anyone who keeps coming up in your consciousness. Say hello. Notice what happens from the exchange and how it makes you feel.
Thank you for being here! If this post resonated with you, please share on your socials or with a friend! This kind of sharing supports my work and helps ‘Journey with the Seasons’ grow each week.
For folks in the Greater Philly area...
Come play in person at The Joy of Creativity Retreat on April 23rd! All of the details and registration is here!
Also..new this week from Substack:
Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it to share with readers during the week.
How to join
Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to Journey With The Seasons Substack, you’ll automatically see my notes. Feel free to like, reply, or share them around!