The last few months, my blog has lain fallow. I have had nearly no time for creating and dreaming. I have been surviving and I won’t belittle myself for this (and I hope if this is you too, that you give yourself a nice warm hug for doing the hard work of surviving).

This has been my first year of teaching, and it has been a kind of hard that college could have never prepared me for. I’ve been falling into bed feeling absolutely ragged- and in the day to day of survival and struggle, I felt part of my own heart breaking.

I long to write, draw, create, and dream. But I haven’t had the energy. And that’s okay. These cycles happen to all of us, but they don’t last forever. I am slowly coming back to myself. I’m not sure yet what that will mean. We (you and I) are always changing. Oh that’s lovely.

Sometimes when something is ending, a season, a phase of life, a job, a friendship…I like to sit with that goodbye. Right now I am leaving the teaching position that I am currently in and preparing to move to a different school to teach 3rd grade. There’s excitement and loss all bundled up together.

There are some students that I will miss…my first teaching friend… and having my own children under the roof of the same school. Those things changing are hard. I am excited to decorate a new space and meet new students and make new friends. I am looking forward to celebrating my new students and their growth. And more than that, I’m excited to be in a more supportive environment so that I can come back to life.

Endings are good/bad. They’re uncomfy. They hurt. But just like my dying garden, there’s a period of joyful planning too. What will I grow here now? Welcome winter’s planning and rest.

With joy,

Winter