Late spring musings
What a spring we have had in Scotland.
Weeks of sunshine, with very welcome rain finally arriving last week, super-charging Mother Nature’s impending midsummer abundance.
Winter was a tough one for me in 2025. Too many sudden bereavements, and issues of concern for my elderly parents who are thousands of miles away.
By late April, I ‘felt’ spring move in. I noticed the banks of my river of life are holding again, with slight changes in its shape. Bends that have broadened in places and narrowed in others, recalculating its meander geometry. Occasionally, I catch the sound of my own particularly long and sonorous exhalation and imagine it offering an exit for what remains of winter’s sludge. A gentle sort of purging.
In the past few weeks, I have been amazed to notice some of the new growth that is ardently showing itself. My amazement is because nothing that wasn’t urgent received much attention through the winter; yet here it is, resilient, tenacious, sprouting in the direction of some light that is brighter than my own. It is as if the growth has happened despite me, and I am reminded that most plants begin to sprout while still underground, in the darkness.
And, of course, no garden is big enough to nourish an ever-increasing number of plants. No single plot, no life, big enough for continuous new growth to thrive alongside what is long-established. Sometimes we are ‘on top of things’, pruning, thinning, weeding – other times life simply does that clearing for us. Burns it all down. We are lucky when it is a controlled burn; but we have each likely witnessed fire so wild it has struck us dumb. Life stripping us back to our barest bones.
Then comes a moment, some time-on from the one in which we surrendered to the apparent bareness of what lay before us. When the first well-nourished shoots break ground and the new begins to reveal itself, hinting at its future bounty. We notice it in new locations, unfolding in new directions, with fresh colour and fruits. It attracts new birds, bugs and opportunists on four legs. Offering its bounty to the circle of life.
One of the plants that has grown, despite being unable to tend it as planned, is Women’s Work. Since planting the seed in the world in September 2024 it is both humbling and awe inspiring to reflect on what it has become. To witness and sample its first fruits.
Three free, seasonal workshops attended by 24-43 women, ages 26-70,from around the world, at the autumn equinox, winter solstice and spring equinox. Details and sign-up link for the summer solstice workshop are here https://www.womenswork.life/workshops
I have held three peer- support sessions for women with neurological conditions, which I will share more about another day, as it has been particularly rich for me, having called it into being to meet a need of my own.
Also, incredibly and wonderfully, I have worked with seven individual clients.
Two first-time mums of toddlers, in their mid/late 30’s, returning to work and struggling to hold onto their sense of self amongst the flurry of competing demands of their ‘new lives’.
A woman looking to re-enter the workforce after needing to take a couple years out for medical treatment and recovery; and wanting to find a job that was true to who she has become, and her refreshed sense of the place of work in her life.
A woman knowing she needed a change of direction in life, at 50.
A woman who was facing into the fact that she was at the end of her current relationship, raising some deeper questions about her sense of self and her habit of prioritising the needs of others.
A woman who was making the decision to leave a secure job and team that she has enjoyed and grown with for 18 years to become self-employed in a completely new field; despite strong voices in her life that consider this to be an error of judgement.
A woman who saw me only once, with our session affirming that she is right to remain in her current role rather than seek a promotion she was encouraged to go for, and to trust that, at 35, she has created a life that truly suits her.
Accompanying a variety of women’s work, as I hoped and intended to.
To one degree or another, these stories and my own are stories of the cycle of our lives. The highs that follow the lows, the light that follows the dark, the new that follows the old…again, and again. A useful question for all of us, at any stage of this cycle, is simply what is good here?
Even in our darkest hours, we can find something in our lives that is good if we remind ourselves to seek it. Birdsong, loving kindness from friends, clean sheets to sleep in, unconditional love from our pets. In brighter times, answering this question can lead us to awe, wonder, deep happiness and gratitude. There is plenty of science documenting how these emotions resource us and build our resilience*
The answers we find, whenever we ask this simple question, can be stockpiled for our future metaphorical winters. Resourcing our trust that spring will come again, that there will be another season of new growth and beginnings. That light will always, eventually, follow the darkness; as improbable as that might feel in the depths of our wintering.
* Here is a good rabbit-hole to fall into, if you are curious: https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/research/positive-psychology-research
