This is what a fresh start feels like
Oh, hi friends!
A fresh start wears many disguises.
The ball drops at midnight. The first of the month. First day of school. First hour you commit to a new project. Your birthday. The moment your computer dies. The leaves fall. The leaves return. Flowers bloom. You move. You leap. Sometimes, a start comes when you stop.
A fresh start can happen in many ways, on many days.
But today, we all get one.
Embrace. Enjoy. Exhale.
"Starlings in Winter" by Mary Oliver
Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly
they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,
dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,
then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can’t imagine
how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,
this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.
Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;
I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want
to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.
Something For Your Ears
I loved chatting with Dimity McDowell on the Another Mother Runner podcast about the intersection of running, productivity, and creativity. We talked about creating habits, why there’s no perfect time for a project, and why running helps you find the words.
You can listen to our chat right here!
Sidenote: The running streak I mentioned on here around Thanksgiving was meant to run (ha) through New Year’s Day, but I decided to simply…keep going? So I’m still running a mile a day (sometimes more, never less) and it’s been a really helpful routine. Six months ago I wouldn’t have wanted to do this, but now feels like the right time.
Sometimes a streak simply needs to find the right moment to start.
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
You can also support my work by checking out my new motivational journal, Do It For Yourself, designed to guide you through your creative and work projects.
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara