Spring is Here(ish)!
Photo by Quinn Corte. Asheville, NC, 2021.
This is an excerpt from the April 2021 email care package, a delightfully free monthly email written by Quinn Corte. Click here to subscribe, or click here to donate.
Spring is here(ish)!
I'm fortunate to be writing this from the mountains in North Carolina, where I've been intimately watching the forest wake up. Buds are emerging, birds are chittering, bugs are saying hello, and the rain and sun are in a ferocious competition.
It feels like a slow and awkward awakening this year. I feel a stirring of life, but don't really know what to do with it. I’ve noticed a creative Renaissance wanting to blossom within me, but it's punctuated by cycles of doubt and exhaustion. I’m like a butterfly that’s still wobbly and sticky from sleep.
What have you noticed? Everyone’s experience of seasons is so personal.
Some of us rejoice and create in the spring, while others may feel a natural retreat or recoiling from the longer days and activating energy.
And of course, this is our second spring during a pandemic. How will this April feel different from last year; and from "normal" years? I think our experiences will somehow feel both very universal and very personal.
Here's my invitation: notice what you feel, without the narrative of what spring is “supposed to feel like.” Take into account your grief anniversaries, seasonal allergies or energy shifts, and your current (unusual) circumstances this year. Invite in compassion for wherever you are.
If you like, I invite you to think about the following questions.
What feels hopeful as you transition into this new season?
What will help sustain you this spring?
How can you gently, safely, and organically invite more aliveness into your days?
Or if it's rest you're craving, how can you weave small retreats into your days?
Toward the bottom of this email, I provide a five-minute guided meditation for morningtime. When I listen to it, it feels like a mini-retreat every time. Try it out!
Supporting the AAPI Community
We stand in solidarity with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community against the increasing acts of racially motivated violence and hate during this COVID era. I know many BIPOC are feeling a lot during another wave of huge collective racial trauma—I hear from you that you are hurting, overwhelmed, angry, scared, and/or bones-deep exhausted.
If that’s you, The Retreat Space community is validating your feelings and your worthiness, and will fight for your right to feel safe and free. We support your rest, your healing, and your empowerment. If there is something specific that would feel supportive to you, please reply to this email.
I invite those of you with white privilege to join me in protecting, uplifting, and supporting our AAPI friends and neighbors in a way that feels good in your body in this moment. I'm currently working on a series of posts for white allies discussing what it means to take sustainable, aligned action as an ally. I believe that when we learn to care for ourselves and uplift each other, we create real change in the world. Stay tuned for more.
In the meantime, I'd like to shout-out a wonderful free bystander intervention training for standing against anti-Asian and xenophobic harassment (facilitated by Hollaback and Asian Americans Advancing Justice). In the training, I learned that intervening doesn't necessarily mean putting own your safety on the line, and that small acts can make a big impact. The one-hour course offers practical ways that we can all reduce trauma as witnesses to online or in-person harassment of all kinds. It left me with concrete ways to look out for others.
The One-Year Mark
We've taken a complete trip around the sun
...wearing masks.
...deprived of hugs.
...spending most of our days inside the checkerboards of Zoom and Instagram.
...either desperately lonely or desperately in need of alone time.
It boggles my mind that we've been doing this for a year, and it's still not over. Humans are so resilient, but we can’t discount the trauma we have been through, and the fierce gentleness required to keep going.
It was one year ago (last March) that I launched The Retreat Space. Here’s my blog post about taking the fist tiny step toward a big dream. As you may know, reflecting on and marking transitions is one of my most important personal practices, and this spring feels like a big milestone.
Here are some of my favorite reads about the one-year mark: not being ready to transition back, how the pandemic has made us slow and forgetful, a single mother’s reflections after one year, the impact of losing casual connections with others.
Phew.
What's a Care Package?
Once a month, you'll receive an email care package from me (like this one!).
It will contain goodies to support and delight you on your self-care journey. The tone and content will vary depending on the season, the collective energy, and what's present for me. Sometimes it might be word-tastic (like this one). Other times it might be more link-y, more event-full, more magical or meditative.
In addition to the monthly care package, I will email occasional announcements. Right now our calendar is nice and quiet, but you'll hear more from me as we add new events and offer retreats and courses.
In the meantime, I hope these monthly care packages help us stay connected and offer an infusion of care into your inbox.
Psst...the image at the top is a sneak peek of the website + brand refresh I've been working on. Lots of quirky outdoor photoshoots happening over here. Wheee!
xoxo,
Quinn
P.S. My question about burnout was featured on a new podcast about the intersection of astrology and career. Ellen Fondiler and Heidi Rose Robbins take a look at my chart and how it relates to my career trajectory. So fun!
P.P.S. Laboring over taxes? This dictionary of financial terms was a lifesaver this year.
P.P.P.S. Time-lapse photos of birds in flight.