boop.

I started a new ritual at the turn of the calendar year. I’ve had a long standing journaling practice first thing in the morning. Without going too far into the weeds, suffice it to say it involves silence, str0ng coffee, a candle and my fountain pen. In the last few months I’ve taken to drawing a tarot card every morning as well. Some mornings I come with a question, some I simply express openness to whatever the cards have to tell me.

I have found solace in this practice, much like some find in morning prayer or meditation. I find that I am having a conversation with both the deepest workings of my psyche and with whatever is beyond me. I have observed fascinating patterns in the cards that reinforce my belief that they are truly facilitating a larger conversation.

My friend Pam (who you will meet in a few months) recommended the Light Seer’s Tarot Deck, which I particularly love because you can utilize the website to both draw a card and read the interpretation. Not long ago, the message from the card I drew was this: “when life becomes a grind or your desire to be efficient and productive becomes extreme conservativism and boredom, it’s time for new adventures.”

As many of you know, I spent the last month in Portugal. While I have been lucky enough to travel with some regularity through my lifetime, these last few years have been a time of constriction, of remaining close to home and prioritizing safety over risk. That has been the theme universally. Certainly, we all go through our own personal seasons of necessary limitation. My weeks overseas reminded me of the importance of not getting stuck in the contraction.

My partner and I have been watching a television show called Shrinking. In one recently episode, a character describes how she is growing more confident in interrupting her boyfriend’s bad behavior. She called it a “boop.” You know, when you tap the nose of your baby/puppy/spouses’s nose and say “boop!” It is a little startling, sort of endearing, and kinda funny? The character’s therapist informs her this is also known as “pattern disruption.”

It seems to me that we all need a boop every now and again. We need to stop and examine our patterns and evaluate whether or not they are serving us. Are they rooting us in the grind mentality? Are they simply routine, or are we growing? When is it time for the interruption, the new adventure, the boop?

This month we’re going to invite in the boop.

In other news, if you haven’t checked out our guest host Candace Glass’s podcast and newsletter, I’ll drop links in below. She’s a constant source of inspiration for me, and I hope you’ll keep engaging with her!

If you are seeing this early in the month, don’t forget about our Quarterly Open Studio Session on Sunday, April 2, 12 - 1:30pm. Email me to RSVP and I’ll send you the Zoom link.

xo,

SRB