🗓️ TREE 546: Know your seasons
TREEpeat 108
On Monday I wrote about some of the global seasons we’re all living through. You are also experiencing your own personal seasons (and microseasons).
In your work you are probably dreaming, exploring, learning, planting, growing, harvesting, celebrating or in recovery.
In your relationships, you may be full of friendship or lonely or somewhere in between.
You are also in seasons in
your family,
your stage of life,
the time of year,
the time of the month,
the day of the week,
the time of day.
All of these have an influence on what is the effective thing to be doing now.
What you are doing to flow with your seasons may be completely different from the people around you.
Two examples of how I flow with my seasons:
I’m more creative in the mornings and at night. My brain is not so good at ideas in the afternoon. Whenever possible, I start new projects in the morning and leave the afternoon for production tasks.
2020 was a year of intense learning for me. My book and podcast choices were almost all about personal growth. When I got to January, I was craving stories. I read a novel. I listened to drama podcasts. I watched TV. I relaxed my brain. Towards the end of February 2021 I noticed the first twinges of the hunger to learn coming back.
Caroline Holmes is my daughter’s girlfriend. She’s lovely and funny and providing the art this week. Today: squid ink.
Thomas Plaatsman writes Cultural Reads, a bi-weekly newsletter with book, movie & music tips from countries all around the world. It’s very good. I’ve been subscribed for the last three issues. If you want to enrich your life with creativity from all over the world, I highly recommend that you join me in reading Cultural Reads. —Jeff
The Tuareg are a people that inhibit the Sahara desert. It's, therefore, no surprise that their blues-like music is known as Malian Desert Blues. One of the most famous Tuareg bands is Tinariwen (Spotify).
—Thomas Plaatsman
Grow slowly
Jeff
Flowing with the seasons seem relatively easy. Lately I have been thinking about "ebbing." Is there something a person is supposed to be doing while in an ebb season? Or is ebbing a different type of flow? Or is ebbing just a stepping or pulling back in order to change directions (a relatively short phase between flows)? We think of ebb and flow in terms of the tides or the waxing and waning of the moon, but what is the pattern of ebb and flow for a human? These are the questions that I am thinking about.