You have always held such a heady mix of renewal and deadlines and busyness for me.

I think I’d like to play with shifting the busyness, transforming work into play as much as I can, and resting whenever I feel the need. Then I’ll see what happens to the deadlines. And the renewal. Yes.

I am so glad you are here.

I am looking forward to so many things about you: new classes and new beginnings, learning new things and leading charges into new territory, pilgrimages of all sorts and surprises, more spaciousness than I’ve had in a while.

What an adventure. Let us romp!

Waverly

I do adore you so. I am packing things for you. Time to shop. The Wish Craft Book. Time to plan trips with friends for the summer. A moment to design a birthday event. A long dinner with good friends. Time at the sauna. Time in the swimming pool. Sillyness. Experiments with fonts and lay-out for the puppy project. Experiments with writing my heart out. Time capsules. A new pinterest board. lists of things I love. Colored paper and stickers. A cheering team.

These are just the clews, they are not obligatory in any way. Come check in with me often. Let’s have fun, my darlin!

xoxox

Dear April,
I actually feel rather optimistic about you. Good things for us, I think!

Good Things I Envision for April:
A regular schedule of working out
As a result, feeling happy, optimistic, more myself, more comfortable and loving toward my body
Continuing to build on what I have learned to be present in my life, and engage with my stuff and my stuck in loving ways
A strong grounding in time spent outdoors absorbing the essence of spring
Nourishing my spirit with quality time with friends and loved ones (i.e. GoT nights, Julia’s tiki party, weekends with Josh)
joyful anticipation of the goodies coming in May, including invoking my superpower of travel planning
Mindful interaction with money and systems
More mini-rallies of awesome!

Possible Challenges in April:
You haven’t addressed the sex-related stuck. It probably will continue to be a challenge until you do, sweetie.
Knee issues – we don’t know what the doctor will say, there is a lot of fear and uncertainty around this issue still.
As the time comes for May’s vacation, money stuff is likely to come up. Ditto body and clothes related stuff.
We made some progress with Fergus and that is great, probably continued attention and gentleness is in order.

My Ode to April:
April, you are springtime. Flowers, sunny days, longer nights. Not yet too hot. You bring a sense of possibility and promise. Vitality. Warm breezes. Wildflowers. All things possible. Dancing flower maidens. Pretty dresses. Crocuses. Buds becoming blooms. The saying goes “April showers bring May flowers.” If there is darkness and hard, I will look for ways that it might be nourishing rains making a beautiful future possible.

Hi April. Let’s dance.

Huh. Feels like May and March was like April and I am all mixed up.

Beloved house-guests left yesterday, most trees have leaves, grass will need cutting soon.

On Wednesday someone turned to me and asked, ‘do you wanna play?”
and I said ‘Yes!” then asked “play what?”

This is April so far and I am a fooling for it. Happy spring to all!

You, so far, are the month of snow and green grass, crocuses and daffodils.

You feel like a month leading to endings, the end of the semester, a month of busyness and the slog to summer vacation.

So I need extra help remembering you are a month of beginnings.

I want to plant seeds of ease and health in you. And creativity.

New life, new life, new life.

I know we don’t always get on so well, what with my allergies making me sickly when I’m around all your beautiful flowers and springiness, but hey I’m looking forward to you this year.

Today is my little brother’s 21st. Hopefully he has his license back now and can go with us to Reno tonight.

Anyway, I’m hoping to find some healing this month, so I definitely appreciate your attempts at taking care of me and getting me to unwind a bit.

I’m working on being more aware of these signs that you give me to take care of myself and not take myself so seriously. I’m trying to kick back and relax.

Anyway, I hope that we can have a lot of fun together and maybe get some stuff accomplished while I learn to relax. If that’s not too much of an oxymoron.

Thank you beautiful month!

~ Mel

lady through whose profound and fragile lips
the sweet small clumsy feet of April came

into the ragged meadow of my soul.
- e. e. cummings

I think I should get this tattooed on the palm of my hand:

Sometimes I think I don’t know how to love you, but then I remember that saying hello to the not knowing how is another way to say hello to you. Which is another form of love in the form of a gentle touch.

While you’re around, I’d like us to be all about the balance and the flow.

In March I spent so much time in my head, and I’m pretty sure I needed that. But around here, in my place and time, April, you are about waking up. (Wake up, flowers! Wake up, garden! Wake up, body! Wake up, people!)

So I’m waking up and coming out of the cave of head-space, and trying some new things:
-setting up loving containers for Floating, Crafting, Moving, Playing, – {balance.}
-continuing internal work within the containers – {flow.}
-checking in with my body every morning (feet want massages a lot. Poor feet!) – {balance.}
-connecting with my spouse and daughters as consciously and lovingly as I can – {balance.}
-reaching out to my friends and exploring with them the idea of Right People – {balance.}
-investigating time and its truth of abundance – {flow.}

I’m excited about the possibilities, April. And I’ll admit to being a little nervous too. I can bring on the overwhelm pretty easily. But the Loving Containers are going to help with that. (So will the Time Abundance Non-Paradox. (It’s just one dock!))