December: Paying attention to...

Rest. Seven-Year Beans. Podcast reccos. A hint of things to come.

Yo. It’s December. Insert ‘melting face’ emoji.

Let it be known, though, that the year will cycle anew. In mere weeks - 3 to be exact, we’ll be turning the year once more. To-do lists, deadlines, external pressure to do this, and be there will also exist in the fresh new year to come.

Is the goal of Christmas deadlines and general December busyness to wipe the to-do slate clean for the new year? Or is it born from toxic comparison-itis and the quest for the ‘perfect’ Christmas? Or is there a collective momentum that sweeps us along, if we let it?

Some wisdom for us, from Oliver Burkeman…

There is a very down-to-earth kind of liberation in grasping that there are certain truths about being a limited human from which you’ll never be liberated. You don’t get to dictate the course of events. And the paradoxical reward for accepting reality’s constraints is that they no longer feel so constraining.

— Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Let’s allow these words to liberate our December-selves from feeling like all the things must be ticked off in a pre-Christmas flurry.

Instead, let’s lose track of time watering the garden by hand, start creative projects that are good for the soul (but unnecessary for Christmas) and/or blow it all off for a day of bushwalking to spot flowering Waratah in the wild…

…or spend a whole afternoon making architectural gingerbread masterpieces with

Jane Hilliard

. The perfect Christmas procrastination activity for a couple of architecture school kids.

This month I’ve been paying attention to…

I needed a reminder about rest, so re-read my newsletter from this time last year: Rest as Resistance. You’re welcome.

Seven-year Beans (or Scarlette Runner Beans) were a favourite plant in my old garden. They regrow for about 7 years in a row (great for the soil, and great for lazy gardeners), you can eat them in a variety of ways, including dried, and their leaves shaded a sunny west-facing window. Aaaand the beans are a fabulous pink. What a garden hero!

Well. I’m at it again. My 3-year-old niece helped me plant a row of seeds. They are growing new leaves daily, and their tendrils are waving about trying to find the strings we put up to support them. Thrilling stuff. This time they’ll be shading a west-facing kitchen window.

I recently discovered a hot tip for composting while on holiday.

Amongst other December-y things, I’ve been finding delightful snatches of time to work on a re-brand and some new offerings for the new year. I’m super excited. Stay tuned.

I’ve discovered a new-to-me podcast, Cultivating Place, and a reborn podcast, Wisdom and Action, formally Dumbo Feather. Both excellent.

I have been mending. Always.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I have a Substack Thread on the go called Crumbs of Gratitude. Join in, if you like.

Image: the aforementioned Seven-Year Beans, with a greyhound photo-bomber.

This’ll be my last newsletter for the year. I’ll resume my noticing/thinking/questioning/writing cycle in mid-January I reckon.

See you on the flip side, where our to-do lists continue to live on, but we are now liberated from them in a down-to-earth kind of way. Right? Right.

Happy summer solstice from this limited human,