Happy New Year! Wishing you a happy and joyful new year. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to share my writings and thoughts with you, and to know that there are other people who share a love of trees and connecting with the nature, and are curious to learn more about this world that we are part of, and of which there is still so much to learn.
For 17 years, I’ve had a theme for the year. It started on top of a sand dune in the Sahara where I had the fortune to see in the New Year. That was the Year of Yes, of saying yes to new experiences. Along the way, the themes have ranged from the Year of Olivia’s Kitchen, about creating a space for my creativity, through to the Year of Wilding and Witching, which is perhaps when I became intentional about my nature connection practice. Last year was the Year of Plants, Planting and Light. It was about putting down roots in my new home and garden, and plants need light to grow of course. It was also a nod to my commitment to following a plant-based diet (The strapline of Plant-Based Treaty is relevant here - Eat Plants, Plant Trees). Light was also about doing more with my photography, but this didn’t happen, beyond continuing my photo a day on Instagram which I have been doing since September 2016.
This year, my theme is the Year of Celebrating (the sacred) Everyday. It’s my 50th birthday year this year, and I wanted to put the focus on celebrating the sacred that exists in every day. In the midst of life and getting things done, it can be so easy to overlook the small moments that bring us joy and to not set time aside to appreciate and honour the sacred that is woven into the fabric of our lives. As I write this, I feel that this is a topic that I will come back again, as exploring what the sacred is is intertwined with my journey to the trees and a theme throughout my book. But it is still only New Year’s Day and let us ease into the year slowly.
As part of my 50th year, I have committed to writing 50 poems in the year. I started in November and was prompted to write the poem below by the book, 52: Write a Poem A Week. Start Now. Keep Going. The first prompt is to write a poem about how to approach a year, so I thought it would be appropriate to share with you today.
How to approach a year
Decide what bulbs to plant in your garden.
Ask yourself what’s your goal.
More colour, more joy, more beauty,
more fun, more life?
What bulbs will fill this hole?
A celebration of showboating spiky-headed purple alliums?
A frivolity of frilled scarlet tulips, perhaps.Grab a sharp-edged trowel.
Rip open the packet.
Give thanks for the possibilities you hold in your hand.
Find an empty spot with the right amount of sun.
Dig approximately twice the depth of the bulb.
Place it in the earth, pointy end up.
Cover with the damp black richness of soil.Wonder at the hundreds of processes and years that have gone
into creating this soil so that you can plant this bulb right here.Tamp the soil gently with your fingers and wish the bulb well.
Give thanks to those who have tended and shaped this garden before you.Give thanks for this opportunity to plant what is beautiful and true,
to provide food for bees and nourishment for your soul.Plant enough to allow for some not growing.
Plant not too many that they crowd each other out.Water.
Wait – but don’t do nothing.
Keep tending the garden.
Pay attention.
Clear weeds.And just when you think that the winter can’t be any longer, and spring
will never come, watch the shoots emerging from the ground.And know that maybe they won’t.
There is no certainty.
And if they don’t, accept this, and give thanks.
And plant again.Olivia Sprinkel
I’d love to hear if you have any intentions or a theme for the year. And please let me know if there is any kind of content that you would like to see here - I’d love to get you know better.
Here’s a picture of me on Brighton Beach on New Year’s Eve, full of a cold, but looking forward to the New Year.