Welcome to 2022.

I know, I’m weeks late with that welcome.

Like some of you, it has taken me a while to feel something akin to “normal” since March 2020. It has been quite the adjustment to adapt to pandemic living. As Joe Dispenza once wrote:“

"Change will probably entail a bit of discomfort, some inconvenience, a
break from a predictable routine and a period of not knowing.”

Indeed, Joe, it has. So much discomfort! So much uncertainty.

Some mantras I utilized during our two-year rollercoaster-like period of uncertainty were “take it slow, relax the pressure, be gentle.” I found that my system needed a lot of time and encouragement to relax its hyper-vigilance. It needed a gentle approach. At times it needed extra support to remember how to ease up and let down its guard. It benefited from regular reminders, like those my mantras provided.

The gentleness I bestowed on my system paid off. It’s more settled now. Its “high alert” state has softened.

And now that my system is more relaxed, it’s beginning to have a hankering for something different. Something new. Maybe it's because of our extra cold Philadelphia Winter and a touch of cabin fever. Or, maybe the gentle approach I’ve bestowed on my system midwifed something in me to come alive. In any case, my system is undergoing change.

Some recent signs and signals of newness are unusual urges to clean out my closets and declutter my dining room table and sudden desires to learn new songs on my ukulele.

The itch to create is in me.

This really isn't surprising, as I know how relaxing reactivity lends to sparks in creativity. All the energy that was protecting and guarding in me is now freed up to be used in other ways. So much energy. So much possibility!

During the pandemic, at the height of my system’s self-protectiveness, I began writing poetry (cinquains). I found that this helped inspire me to meditate when it was most uncomfortable to be still, when I met so much restlessness, anxiety and fear. I would sit briefly, feel into my reactive system and somehow the just-right words would arise and would perfectly reflect my present state. Here’s one of the poems I wrote early on.

Chaos
reveals order
in its own precious time.
Like Spring buds and blooms that nourish
our wounds.
March 27, 2020

This practice gave my mind a task, helped me to stabilize and generated feel-good energy. It helped me to meet my system where it was. It tenderized the guardedness and created a warm entry point into my daily meditation practice. It worked so well that I continue to do it and it has fueled the creative sparks I'm now feeling. Something in me is saying "more of this".

In feeling the call to heed these sparks and have decided to enter into the 100 day project that begins February 13. This free initiative, now in its 9th iteration, is an invitation to a global audience of creatives to commit to their art for 100 days. Last year, this would likely have felt like an impossible burden. Now, it feels exciting and challenging. Chall-citing.

Maybe you’re feeling an itch of creativity too. Maybe you’re feeling a longing to express something from your depths, or simply have a wish to do something different. To start fresh. Maybe, like me, you’d like to stretch your commitment legs and do the thing that feels like a mix of challenging and exciting.

You can join me. It’s simple. There are no strings attached and no fees involved. You just commit and do it. You can view more details here. You can follow mine here on my Facebook page where I'll be posting my daily cinquains for 100 days.. You can even cheer me on if you wish.

So what do you have a hankering for? What does your system want or need right now?

Feel free to share.

Mara