“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
– Lao Tzu

Hello Friends and Happy Spring!

No, it’s not a typo – although we often equate the beginning of June, or the end of school, or even Memorial Day as the start of the summer season, it is the Summer Solstice on June 21st that will officially mark the change of seasons.

Which means we can take a deep breath and spend the next couple weeks basking in the abundance of springtime!

One of my favorite sayings about springtime is a haiku attributed to 17th century Zen master Matsu Basho: “Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.”

Ahh, now that’s peaceful. But it’s quite the opposite of how we feel at this time of year, isn’t it?!

Spring comes after the dark of winter and we rightly feel inspired to DO more, GO more, to start a new chapter, to begin anew. We feel the pull of that springy Wood energy, the element associated with the season of Spring in the Chinese Five Element system, and we feel our own kind of bouncy energy rising up inside of us – this ‘new yang’ energy begging to be unleashed in order that we may do, go, make, begin, and create.

Springtime has an energy that begs us to do anything except sit quietly and do nothing.

And yet – is it the exact wisdom we need at this time of year? The wisdom we need to find that ever-elusive sense of balance?

There is plenty of truth in what this season compels us towards – it is the season of beginning anew, starting a fresh chapter, birthing into the world around us whatever we’ve been allowing to gestate during the winter.

I feel that pull for sure. I’ve been in book-finishing mode for many months now. The course I completed to guide me through the process of self-publishing a book ended back in March. I believed that I, too, would finish my book by the end of the course, ready to birth my new creation into the world right at the beginning of springtime!

They are not wrong that it’s possible to create a book in two months (a “tiny book” as the name of the course implies), but it’s possible that my book isn’t exactly “tiny” and that I also forgot to account for the fact that anything I do takes me three times as long as the average human. By that math, I am right on schedule!

I actually don’t mind sticking with a long project, toiling away little by little working towards the vision at the end. In fact, I often prefer it. I am a tortoise through and through, this I’ve come to know. Sometimes I wish I was a hare. It does seem a bit more…exciting, showy, attention grabbing. And boy do I feel that right now, with this springtime energy beckoning me, whispering to me, come on, wrap up this snooze-fest quickly and let’s start something new!

And yet that infamous fable of the tortoise and the hare speaks to my other favorite springtime saying, this one attributed to 4th century Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu: “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

It is the tortoise who continues on his quest, undeterred, determined, painstakingly slow, but perseverant until the end. Sometimes I like to remind myself that the tortoise doesn’t just cross the finish line, he actually wins the race. Motivation for your day if you, too, are a tortoise in a hare’s world.

But not to discount the hare’s strategy altogether. While his arrogance meant that he lost the race to the tortoise, he did find time in his day to take a nap and enjoy a bit of stillness. This is its own kind of wisdom.

When you inevitably find yourself getting caught up in the whirlwind of spring energy that surrounds us during this season, take a moment to remember the tortoise and the hare, and decide how you, too, could incorporate a bit of slowness or stillness into your day.

Instead of only working in your yard this season, curating it into perfection, what if you took some time to simply be in your yard – to sit quietly, and do nothing. Nothing except gaze upon the peacefulness and beauty that nature offers to us, no matter how wild or uncultivated it may be.

Instead of agreeing to every social invite that comes your way this season, what if you reserved one day or evening for stillness, slowness, for simply catching your breath and breathing deeply.

Instead of berating yourself for not getting everything done this season, what if you reminded yourself each day, “nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” I know that’s what I continue to remind myself!

Yes, springtime is a season for shaking off winter’s stagnation, unleashing new energy upon the world, and leaning into our ‘yang’ energy. Enjoy that! Just remember that it’s also very easy to lean too far into our yang energy, since we already lean that way as a society.

If springtime is making you feel overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, like there’s simply too much to do suddenly on your plate – be kind to yourself. It’s easy to feel that way in this busy society we live in, and even easier to feel that way during the yang seasons of spring and summer.

Gently remind yourself that there’s nothing wrong with you, in fact there’s something quite right with you. It’s simply your well-functioning internal scales giving you an important message that you’re leaning off balance.

So many of us hear this message, but not everyone chooses to listen to the message. It’s hard; we’re not meant to be living the way we are living, always on some mad collision course with burnout. So when our hustle culture doesn’t naturally support our right to live a peaceful, balanced life, what are we to do? We have to think for ourselves.

What if you chose to listen to this wise message coming from your body, mind, heart and soul?

Listen, heed the message, and take the radical step of sitting quietly, and doing nothing – even for one day, one hour, five minutes – to return to balance. ✨

A Few Updates!

The Book 📚

Writing process: complete! Editing process: finishing up a few final loose ends. Designing process: up next. The next stage is designing the actual physical layout of the book – size, format, paper type, etc., as well as the exciting step of designing the book cover. While I was aiming to have it out sometime this spring, I’m now aiming for more of a late summer timeframe. Late Summer – when we start to feel that earliest pull in the energy around us back towards yin energy, slowing our pace a bit, and turning inward. I’ll keep you updated here – but if you’re not already subscribed to the newsletter, I encourage you to do so because that’s where you’ll hear about it first!

Moondance Turns 5 🎉

On May 29th Moondance turned five years old. It’s been one hell of a tortoise journey, and I look forward to what’s to come in the future! I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you that have been a part of the Moondance journey, whether it’s been coming to classes and workshops, working one-on-one together, or reading this newsletter and letting it be a part of your life. 🐢💖

With love and gratitude,

Angela