What are you waiting for?

I’m waiting for spring.

Yes, I know—though I work hard to stay in the present moment and practice radical acceptance, the present moment in Minnesota includes snow on the ground and ice forming on the pond each night. Deep in my heart I know that spring is just around the corner. But I am so tired of cold weather and snow!

Deep heavy sigh… sometimes it just helps to say it out loud. The weather forecast has us seeing 60-degree temperatures outside by this weekend. But yesterday and the day before yesterday and the day before that, it snowed and felt like the middle of winter again. So I feel justified in complaining just a little bit (even if it was beautiful while the snow fell).

The end of…

Staying home?
Social distancing?
Fear?
Worry?
Winter Weather?
Pain?

It seems like we’re all waiting for something or else we’re castigating ourselves because we’re not __________ (fill in the blank).

Knowing that things change and nothing lasts forever sometimes doesn’t help much when you’re in the middle of the muck. But as a farmer’s daughter I know for a fact that manure almost always feeds new growth (sooner or later).

Not everything that happens can be transformed from manure to joy and new growth immediately. If you are grieving any kind of loss, it takes time. There is no time-table for how long grief lasts. It takes as long as it takes to work through grief. If you are grieving because of all of the changes we have endured in the past weeks or have lost a loved one, or you have lost your livelihood and don’t know how to pay the bills, please stop reading this post now. You don’t need to be thinking about feeding new growth or choosing joy. When it’s time you will know it.

Feeding New Growth, Choosing Joy

Here’s how I am feeding new growth and choosing joy.

Yesterday I listened to a short Elizabeth Gilbert video on Instagram. She talked about creating and suggested that too many of us keep saying we don’t have time or we’re waiting for inspiration, or some other thing is keeping us from doing the thing that matters the most to us.

Her suggestion for anyone who has something that really, really matters to them that they are not doing (or creating) is to schedule an hour a day to dedicate to that thing. If you’re a writer it means sitting down at your desk to write for an hour. Maybe you’ll write something and maybe you won’t but by placing your butt in the chair you greatly increase the odds of actually writing.

I have noticed since I committed to posting at least one photo a day during this time of social distancing that my creativity has blossomed. Each day I spend way more time creating than ever before and it is such a satisfying way to live. Talk about choosing joy, choosing to commit to doing my work every day, is filling me to the brim with joy!

There are occasional days when I wake up in the morning and think, “I’ve got nothing… I don’t know what to write about today or what photo to post today.” But then I place my butt in the chair and some days it’s magical. Other days it’s like pulling teeth. But each day I make the effort to show up for the things that really really matter to me.