Notes from the Heart (Email Newsletter April 29, 2018)
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Hello hearts,
I hope this finds you healthy and well. You're invited to snuggle up with a cup of hot tea or coffee while you scroll. It is Sunday and there is beauty here*. Drink it all in.
I have been wishing for a visual divider between my little yard and my neighbor's huge driveway. Wishing for my space to feel bounded, intimate, more magical. Wishing to look out my living room window and see quiet beauty surrounding me. I have been wishing for four years.
This week, I stopped wishing and bought three giant trellises and three fast-growing vines (American wisteria, Sally Holmes white climbing rose, and pink Goldflame Honeysuckle). Friday afternoon was spent securing trellises with rebar stakes and planting these new beauties in enormous clay pots.
After one transplants a climbing vine comes the delicate task of unwinding its branches. Separating them from the twisting tangle is a slow process, but one that is necessary to enable growth in new directions. As I gently unwound each stem I was struck by how flexible and inclined they are to stretch and reach for the new places they can now go. All I have to do is pay attention to where they wish to head and then support their inclination with a bit of soft, loose twine.
I think:
“My body is like this. So are my dreams. And so, of course, my life.”
Yes, we become tightly wound in the containers we've chosen or been given. Yes, our muscles tighten in the positions we hold most often. Yes, our aspirations will narrow in the vision-field to which we've grown accustomed. So yes, our lives can come to feel a little (or a lot) like we are stuck.
But like wisteria, our bodies are also flexible, regenerative, and capable of unwinding. Like honeysuckle, our dreams call us to gently unravel them so that we may thrive.
While my white rose is not yet large enough to reach her trellis, I can already see new growth reaching in its direction, eager to climb into her expanding life.
Are you unwinding too? It is an intuitive process. Trust your body, trust your heart, trust your dreams. Trust life.
Sending love,
Laura
*To view the rest of the email newsletter, click here.
Laura Lowery is the founder, editor and publisher of Lucia. She does her best to lead a creative life. Whether triumphant or stumbling, Laura shares daily notes (that are often weekly) here on luciajournal, including stories, behind-the-scenes happenings, little doses of inspiration, and large quantities of curiosity and heart. She is pleased to meet you.