Welcome to my very first newsletter on this new platform. I, like many others, have been re-evaluating my relationship with social media heavily this last year. I grappled with what it might mean to show up online in a way that actually brought joy, intention, and pleasure again.
I took many months to come to this page and find that yes, I do want to continue to write and share my inner worlds with a landscape of humans that finds themselves at this threshold as well. I am honored that you are here with me sharing this time and space. I find myself coming back to slow movements, slow teachings, and slow crafts. I’ve been pivoting from *big, loud, bold, quick, many* and gradually finding my way into spaces that feel *less adrenalized, accountable, intentional, and nuanced* in my body.
Y’all are welcome to share pieces of this offering with your communities. I just ask that you credit my work
@meredithannewhite
. Thank you so much <3
So, what the hell does it mean for us to actively choose to slow down in a season that shouts at us to hurry up?
These shouts sound something like this for me:
“you must hurry!”
“you must buy!”
“you must make more!”
“you must say yes!”
“your family needs you to show up in this certain way!”
“you must be tired!”
What does it mean as a maker, friend, lover, family-member, person to create more spaciousness for ourselves in a season of haste?
For me as a maker, it means not pushing myself to the point of sickness. It means saying no to markets that require me to make more than my body allows for the *quantity* that is required. It means allowing my viewers, clients, and community to show up for me with intentionality. It means reevaluating my relationship with production — there are labor strikes all over the world right now that I encourage you to look further into as we enter a season of buying. I can’t emphasize this enough: supporting makers sustains us to continue to make work on every level. It allows us to pay our bills, take care of ourselves, and create meaningful work.
For me as a friend, it means being okay with saying no to some gatherings. It means communicating that this time of year is triggering for me in many regards. It means countering a party/drink with a coffee/tea and a walk at another given time.
For me as a lover, it means asking for support. It means allowing myself to show up as a human tornado sometimes because turns out, I am a human tornado sometimes. It means telling my people that I love them through it. It means being vulnerable and holding myself accountable in communicating my needs.
For me as a family-member, whew. This one. This one is just not easy. It means setting time limits around family-time depending on capacity. It means bringing tools along with me that ease my body during moments of discomfort (sketchbook and pencils, stones, smells, water, juice, animals). It means communicating boundaries! It means going outside and being with the trees. This is one I’m going to have to come back to over and over again for the entirety of my life let’s be real.
As a person, this means that I am just that. I am a person that has needs. I get to look at myself in the mirror and recognize that I am allowed to put myself first this time of year. Lately, that looks like making a cup of tea and feeding my body. It sounds simple, but sometimes when I’m not being nice to myself this is hard to do.
As a web of protection this season:
How does it feel in our bodies when we choose to show up in spaces with intention?
*This feels very important to me. I noticed myself slipping out of many of my practices that ground me on a day-to-day basis. I found myself not writing, not stretching, not pulling cards, etc. I found myself tugging at old wounds with a lot of meanness. This lead me to my next reckoning.
The uncovered truths I never thought to question because my body was so used to knowing them as truths.
This is just the time of year that I feel like shit.
This is the time of year I commit to tasks that make me feel less like myself.
This is the time of year that I feel less empowered.
This is the time of year I feel depleted.
This is the season of giving and giving too much.
This is the time of year I mask parts of myself.
I just uncovered these truths in my body. Truths that no longer feel resonant for me, and truths that I no longer want to exist as truths.
I reclaim this season of haste and transmute it into a season of intention. This is my new truth.**
I am not saying that this will miraculously happen over, but now I know that this is the way I want to feel this time of year. I have the ability to transmute those previous truths into ones that better align with me now.
So I land on these questions to further sit with.
What do you actually want to feel like this time of year?
What if we disrupted outdated tradition this year in lieu of allowing people to see us in these (new) spaces of empowerment and ease?
Thank you so much for being here with me and taking the time with this offering. I will continue to show up here when I feel called. I’m hoping to make this a rooted practice as a continued way to process. Please share this work with your friends, your loved ones, your platonic soulmates, your pets, with the trees around you and your plants. Please share this on social (just tag my work @meredithannewhite
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You can find me here, on my IG @meredithannewhite
,and my
website
With gratitude,