Spring Forward

Hello everyone

How are you all?

I'm sorry for the silence of the last month or so, I am busy preparing a new website with my friends at Ditto Creative and Saltwick Media. It is quite intense working on all the content and workshops for the next 18 months so that there is something to see, I am quite impatient with myself. The new website will feature more of me too, in a bid to make it feel more human. 

I really don't like being in front of the camera, but Michael from Saltwick was patient, thoughtful and encouraging, to be honest I think he was pretty nervous too, having to photograph another photographer. Patience paid off on both our parts because by gently encouraging each other we got the very best out of one another.

I actually like the pictures of me and that is a first!

Spring is a season of patience, those of us with gardens wait for the last frosts to let of of their grip on lawns and seedlings. Nature patiently waits for the sun to gradually warm through the cold of winter, birds slowly patiently build nests ahead of the busy end of spring. 

Those who are Christians like me patiently observe Lent, the 6 week period from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday.

The local shepherd keeps his sheep in the field behind our home, he is patiently waiting for the new lambs to arrive.

Spring is all about patience, new life, or renewal of life.

I mention patience because often we are not patient when it come to ourselves, our creativity and especially our ability. We are very hard on ourselves, to the point of discouragement. When what we really need is gentle encouragement and a great deal of patience, to slowly come out of winter and emerge into spring, transition at a sustainable pace, after all we have a long summer ahead and a radiant autumn before we can slow back down and winter ourselves.

For me winter is about resting and consolidating my thoughts, ideas and energies, spring is when I start to knock the rust off my wheels and start to become more curious, summer is high energy, long days and vigorous growth, while autumn is a time to gently let go of that which does not serve you anymore.

Spring is the time that requires us to be most patient with ourselves, we need to slowly watch as the natural world wakes, we can move at the same slow speed as nature - this is a very healthy way of walking in nature  - very slowly!

My favourite photographer Minor White said this - "Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence." He is saying be patient with yourself first so that your patience will be rewarded by your subject as it acknowledges you and reveals something special to you.

We are always so goal driven, how many steps, how quickly did I get here; where is here? Most of us are too impatient to realise we are where we need to be. 

One of the reasons I offer my seasonal workshops online is to help and encourage the gentle awareness of the world being a creative requires.

This season doesn't  require the most steps, most frames taken or words written, it requires a slowing down of the race to a gentle pace where you can be curious about the grasses growing, the bulbs emerging, even the changing angle of light across your home, you won't notice anything if you are rushing and impatient.

If you would like to invest in  yourself by joining a gentle, patient and creative start to spring I would be very happy to share my ideas and assignments with you.

If not that's cool, but please be patient with the world and especially yourself.