Dear readers and friends,
The past few months have featured some big life transitions… and I’ve been less frequent blogging, whilst at the same time, working to keep my creative spark (and projects) nourished and alive.
Writing has always helped me to navigate challenging moments in life as well as process major events I’m experiencing. Whether health struggles or simply big and exciting life transitions, writing is like that friend who listens carefully without judgment and also without bombarding me with opinions. Allowing me to share and release… and then read back to myself sweet little messages from my subconscious, which then help guide me in my day-to-day.
So, without further ado, I’m excited to announce my new poetry book Love Letters in the Ether which is now available for purchase in paperback and e-book formats, online today! But beyond that… the story behind Love Letters… and an even bigger announcement. For this past week has marked my fourth moon of pregnancy: and very soon I will be at the halfway point. Time has been flying, and the realities sink in deeper every day as I feel my body shifting and changing, and this other soul present within. My energy has been returning lately, after a very challenging first trimester (which I spent mostly alone — as my husband and I found ourselves in different countries for work, before our news arrived).
Love Letters is a collection that has been in the works for a long time — I have so much poetry tucked away in journals and in old folders on my computer, and I’d started loosely compiling poems here and there for the anthology. However, for a while it was lacking the “glue” to hold the pieces together. The puzzle was not quite fitting. Then, it started to really come together when I began my pregnancy journey. Spending that first trimester in isolation in the jungle wilderness, in my newly-built but not quite finished home, and facing all the difficulties that presented. And whilst this book is not really about my pregnancy, those experiences helped activate its completion. In turn, writing and editing helped me to navigate my new reality.
During those early weeks and months, a few new poems and songs were also born which found their way into the book. I am intending to record some audios and tracks accompanied by the harp — a new hobby of both me and my musically gifted husband! — so do stay tuned.
For now, I’ll share a new love poem I wrote the other morning… as well as a mindfulness writing exercise for navigating life change, below.
The poem is inspired by some waves of grief I experienced, about the closing of the chapter “just the two of us”. It’s a different kind of grief, it’s counterbalanced by the excitement and joy of creating life. I think I’m understanding at a more embodied level what “beyond duality” means. I’m surrendering into this flow, appreciating transformations of energy, and the grander cycle of life.
The morning is crisp and our love is fresh as the breeze flows in from the east memories of dawn golden light cast after the struggles of the storm the echoes ring true from a sweet 60s song as my heart bursts back into bloom though winter is coming I am warmed inside and hover in the space between worlds we've cycled through all the seasons of life and another chapter be coming to a close but still, I pray we'll remember these days and carry the spark forevermore.
Mindfulness exercise: If you are navigating any sort of transition, intense waves of emotion or similar experience, I invite you to take a moment today to journal through your feelings – to help you shift any stuck energy and flow through life with more ease and peace. A particular technique I love to use is to find analogies and draw links with the symbolic cycle of nature’s seasons. It’s a reminder that nothing is permanent, and we move through different phases. This technique helps me to appreciate the beauty in any particular chapter I am experiencing, with deeper gratitude for it. On the other hand, if I’m experiencing something challenging, I become centred in the knowing that it shall pass – as well as able to appreciate the difficulty for the lessons and gifts it too is bringing.
Wishing you love, ease, and peace, with whatever transitions big or small you may be navigating in life. May you always find celebration in each chapter and season, presence in the journey, and allow the threads carried by each experience, to weave the tapestry of who you are. Always part of you, the ancestral yarn, while you always keep evolving into eternity.
With Love,
Cara
Love Letters in the Ether can be purchased online on Amazon, in paperback and e-book formats, available here. Thank you for your presence with me, and support on this journey!