Hello, Spring! πŸŒ·Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ 
GLASS FULL
 

THE POUR | Issue 21 | March 2024
 

β€œIt was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”

-Charles Dickens

Maybe it’s brain fog, or maybe it’s the way time feels in heavy seasons; bloated yet blurry, but the months have been passing and I feel like I’m floating along in their wake. Today is Spring Equinox and in the air there’s a plucky courage; from the first blooms who dare to break through the thawing ground, the chatty birds whose songs fill the mornings, to the lengthening days that stretch out, claiming back parts of the night. Nature’s chorus of resilience sings, and I can’t help but hum along to her tune. I’ve never needed an early Spring more; to feel the warm breeze, to see life emerging again!! It’s a reflection of my own readiness to leave this (literal and metaphorical) winter behind.

In January’s edition of The Pour, I shared that we’d spent the last few months adjusting to news of a tough diagnosis for Mr. Glass Full’s mother, Doreen. A week later, she passed, suddenly and unexpectedly. In the month and a half since then, we’ve been moving through the sacred and sorrowful rites of passage that come at the end of a loved one’s life. I flit between the role of witness and passenger. His grief and anguish must take him to places where I cannot go, and that is a grief of its own.

When she was first diagnosed, among many things, I was scared of the way that this would change our lives. Everything felt so unpredictable and looming. How do you plan when you don’t have a clue what life will look like in a week? At that time, whenever I drove somewhere alone I made a habit of screaming at the top of my lungs in the car. It’s kind of perfect because no one can hear you while you’re driving by, and it’s a good way to just let it out. During one such scream sesh, a song came on and I belted the lyrics like I was the lead singer of a screamo band and I felt the tiniest bit lighter. And also a little unhinged? But that’s neither here nor there.

Inspired by my car screaming, after one particularly dreadful day I sent an email to my closest girls inviting them to an evening of karaoke therapy or as it’s now named, Thereokeβ„’. Here’s a snippet of what I shared:

We landed on February 17th for the inaugural Thereokeβ„’. I couldn’t have known this at the time, but this would fall right in the fresh fog of Doreen’s passing. As the day approached, everything in me said β€œretreat, cancel, close the blinds and lock the door”, but a small part of me whispered β€œmaybe this will be good?” and so I made the decision to keep it. The event wasn’t exactly what I had planned for it to be, I had imagined myself being more of an organized host, sprinkling the night with little surprises and delights. Instead, it was exactly what it needed to be; a cathartic evening of scream singing with my people. There’s a post on social media that talks about the Parable of the Choir. A chorus of voices can sing a beautiful note for a very long time because individual singers can drop in and out to breathe. I think that’s what singing with your loved ones in a private karaoke room is, too. A moment to be held, to know it’s ok for you to drop out and breathe.

In the month since then, Mr. Glass Full and I have been holding each other down, just getting through the tough days. I’ve had an eye twitch come and go, he’s got some kind of stress rash that won’t go away. We’re definitely not thriving. But if you’ve been around here for a second, you know that Glass Full’s general vibe is β€œdoing this life shit” together, alongside each other, in community. And nothing teaches you that we are meant to be holding each other’s hands through life more than these heavy seasons.

I’ve noticed that since November, I’ve been feeling like life is happening to me. I’ve mentioned that I’ve been wading a bit too far into the waters of β€œwhy me”, finding it hard to resist the pull of a good wallow. To be fair, things have been hard. There was a long series of weeks where something a little bit traumatic happened every week. And it got to the point where I was expecting it, waiting for this week’s β€œthing” to arrive like an unwelcome guest. I felt like my light had dimmed, like bits of my magic were gone and I was getting sucked into looking for and expecting the hard and heavy things in the same way that I used to spot the magic and beauty in life. I’ve been contemplating the difference between pain and suffering. I know that pain is part of life, it’s not meant to be escaped or avoided. But I wonder if sometimes the suffering was coming from ruminating, from looking for the next hard thing, from feeding off the story of the pain, from my metafeelings about the pain. It’s a tough thing to know, and I’m still way too in it to need to have any answers. I also don’t like how closely this could slip into the icky territory of spiritual bypassing. But Spring has brought with it some new perspectives and a desire to be in and view life differently than I have been.

What I do know is that my light hasn’t dimmed, it’s simply refracting. Bending around the obstacles in its path, changing shape and trajectory. Light may bend, but it never loses its essence. The Equinox reminds us of this too, light changes and the resilience of life’s continual bloom abounds; emergence is always possible.

 

Spring Equinox Rituals

I am keeping it simple this year, friends. Here’s what I’m up to today/this week, sharing in case you want to take what appeals to you:

  • buy some fresh spring flowers, lead with intention and go towards the colours and fragrances that draw you. Let this be a sensory experience.

  • write down some feelings, words, experiences from this winter season - burn and release

  • writing and sending this newsletter was a ritual for me, reconnecting to my words, this community, and the part of me that runs this business and wants to step back into it! Maybe there’s something that you’ve set aside during the winter that you’d like to come back to?

  • reset my altar

  • wear spring colours and a lipstick

  • if the energy aligns, set some intentions

  • make a meal with some spring ingredients (thinking some roasted chicken, roasted carrots, fresh greens with some maple syrup in the dressing)

The last sip

Where I leave you with a roundup of funny, inspiring, beautiful, wholesome or weird things I’ve seen on the internet, affirmations, journal prompts, and other whimsy.

  • Sharing here the inaugural Thereokeβ„’ playlist!! Subscriber First Name, I need to know: what would your song be? Also, should this be a Glass Full event?

  • While we’re on songs: I rediscovered this one and it is TRANSPORTING me.

  • Protect this sweet angel at all costs

  • I am known to save a lot of delicious things to bake and literally never bake them. Truly, I haven’t baked something since 2020. Sharing one of my recent saves so maybe one of you will bake them!
 

With love,
Julia
 
GLASS FULL

Thank you for reading, you are loved.

Bayview Ave, ON, Canada

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