
Hygge and West’s Mermaid Paper.
I was surprised to learn from my yoga instructor that winter – the season that is – is associated with water and fear. It’s a time to look inward, and reflect. I suppose in some cosmic way the Gregorian Calendar (that’s the one we currently follow – which was created by Pope Gregory XIII) with it’s year end, just after the Winter Solstice, and our tradition of goal setting for the new year – is in fact, a time of inward reflection. Hum.

Pottok . Little Whales Wallpaper. At last I found it!
I’m a goal setter by nature. I like the process. I like to check in and reflect. I love to see what the year has produced. I’ve taken to telling people – whoever will listen really – what my goals are because I learned a few years back that in doing that – blabbing it to everyone, you are in fact increasing your chances of getting what you want. Isn’t that the most amazing thing? Somewhere in there, surely the psychology of accountability whispers in our ear, encouraging us along on our path.

Marblous Oceany Wallpaper.
Fear can also be a powerful motivator. No surprise that fear is what set me off on this quest in the first place. The Quest for the Nest that is. I find it eye-opening when someone tells me that they find what I am doing “courageous”. I throw back my head and laugh – a nervous giggle whistling out through parted lips as I prepare to correct them. It’s FEAR, not courage I want to scream. Still, as I reflect on this past year, finish construction on No. 4…I have to admit, that I am in fact doing it. Like water – I am finding my way, sometimes in the face of what seems decidedly unyielding, sometimes salty, and others deliciously enveloping.

Serena and Lily . Seagrass Cloth . Amalfi
E.E. Cummings said: “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea.”
I am a Cape Cod girl at heart. I cannot argue with him there.
In this winter season, embrace the stormy waters, the calm tidal pools, the white caps, and ebbing tide. There is something to learn and love from them all.