I’m thoughtful after our week here last week – integrating and pondering so much. And grateful to the women who shared their truths and for the rich conversation in comments.
I’m mindful, too, that sensuality isn’t foremost on everyone’s mind right now, and so feel moved to share publicly the Trust Note my subscribers got last week.
Whether you’re blossoming sensually or not, this letter is for you:
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It’s Friday morning here, cold and gray. It’s my kids’ last day of school for the year, and, rather than one last morning alone for me, my son is on the couch with a stomach ache.
I’ve been so moved by the interviews at Trust Tending this week (
here,
here, and
here). All three women are so vibrantly alive, and even when they don’t FEEL particularly vibrant (surely they, like we, don’t feel high all the time), their work ignites such growth in the rest of us. Seeds of sensual awakening are planted and watered and, in many cases, caused to shoot up by the foot, by the work these women do.
I’m aware, however, too, that sensual growth is a lifelong enterprise, and nothing says that putting it off now = never helping it happen.
Sometimes there’s sick kids on the couch. Sometimes there’s ailing parents. Sometimes you’re so depressed or so deeply in grief or mired in a workload so large that responsibility spills and oozes from your plate.
Sometimes the work that’s yours right now has nothing overtly at all to do with sensuality (or fill-in-the-blank with whatever topic gets touted inadvertently or on purpose as must be tended right now).
I want to state outright that I think that’s just fine. More than just fine.
There are so many avenues for growth and so many ways to come alive. Pick any one of them, or, as is more often the case, have any one of them pick you, and BOOM! You’re right where you need to be.
My encouragement to you, instead, is to listen.
Listen to the quieter voices inside you – the ones your more dominant inner voices – like your inner manager and task master and the voice that’s all about paying the bills – tend to talk over.
These quieter voices sound like tender hopes a lot of the time, or persistent invitations. Or like a restless wish for change.
They even sound jealous sometimes, or bummed that someone has something you very much want.
However they sound, I encourage you to listen to them and take them seriously. They can help you incisively discern what work or what play is yours right now to do – "yours" meaning what the wisdom of your life is calling you to do.
If your work right now is about sensual evolution, wonderful! If it’s about something else entirely, that’s wonderful, too.
I bless you today, right where you are. Because…where else could you possibly be?
With love,
Kristin
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For those who don’t receive them already, Trust Notes are my more personal writings. Occasionally they’re simple sketches, but more often they’re letters like these, penned from my heart.
As Trust Tending grows, I’m eager to maintain and continually reimagine ways to connect personally and meaningfully with the community that gathers here (can’t wait to share the new ideas up my sleeve for this Fall!). I hope these letters can continue to be a place for that.
At the end of this month I’ll be attending the Creative Joy Retreat where Tracey Clark will be sparking my creative juices on the photography front. So I plan to begin including photographs with Trust Notes on occasion – another intentional means to lift the veil from inadvertent “Slick, Edited Blog Persona” to reveal the flesh and blood underneath.
If you don’t receive Trust Notes and wish to, sign ups are there in the sidebar.
And if Trust Notes are meaningful to you and you’d like to help others know why, please share in the comments below! What do you like about Trust Notes? Why do you read them? Your feedback helps me stay my course – or helpfully adjust it – and helps others more clearly recognize where value for them lies.
Thank you!
Are you new here? If so, welcome!
This post is a great distillation of what I believe about trust. For a free book that exemplifies what trust tending means,
click here. I’m so glad you stopped by!
Everything Belongs
Seasons are universal. Treat yours uniquely.
Loved this part: There are so many avenues for growth and so many ways to come alive. Pick any one of them, or, as is more often the case, have any one of them pick you, and BOOM! You’re right where you need to be.
Excited to meet you next week!
Comment by Amanda @ Click. The Good News — June 19, 2012 @ 5:29 amExcited to meet you, too, Amanda! :)
Comment by Kristin — June 19, 2012 @ 7:35 amI love receiving and reading your Trust Notes and, in fact, everything you write and I hope you continue writing. You write simply and profoundly, in a so down-to-earth way. I always take something away and to my heart from what you share. Your words always resonate with me: Trust, growth, seeding, watering, nurturing, planting, harvesting, seeking, caring in such a gentle good way. I love your illustrations, they make me feel good. Your writing makes me feel like I receive letters from a good dear friend who knows and loves my soul. Thanks Kristin for doing what you do….I am so glad I stumbled upon your website one day.
Comment by Debbie — June 19, 2012 @ 8:46 amMy deep pleasure, Debbie. I couldn’t hope for a better effect than what you’ve described. xo
Comment by Kristin — June 19, 2012 @ 9:38 amI am a relatively new subscriber, and I frequently share your posts. I feel you give voice to what I know to be true but haven’t had the strength lately to say myself. I am going through a very difficult time after my child was victim of a crime, and your writing and artwork feeds me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Comment by Donna Dressel — June 19, 2012 @ 11:13 amHi Kristin
I am one of those who are not turned on by the topic of sensuality so I tend to shy away simply because I feel we are surrounded by so much physical to the exclusion of what lies within. However your lovely inspirations (quoted below) keep giving wake up calls to stay with the wisdom one’s own spiritual journey and to take it further. Thank you for being who you are.
“However they sound, I encourage you to listen to them and take them seriously. They can help you incisively discern what work or what play is yours right now to do – “yours” meaning what the wisdom of your life is calling you to do”.
Comment by Johanne — June 19, 2012 @ 3:59 pmTrust Notes keep me coming back to the deepest and truest parts of myself and help me to learn to trust that all is well, that I am growing, and that life transformation is possible. In the tiniest steps. In the smallest ways. And in big and profound ways as well.
Kristin, you inspire me to ask the tough questions and live into the answers.
You make me smile and laugh and groan too – but in a good way.
Your words hit home with me and push me to look more clearly at who I am and who I am becoming.
And trust is such a huge part of that.
I always look forward to seeing your notes in my inbox and find myself copying highlights into my journal and pondering them many times over.
Thanks for your writing and your vulnerability. I hope many more people sign up for your Trust Notes and benefit from your gentle, tender, generous wisdom.
Comment by GailNHB — June 20, 2012 @ 6:28 amDonna, Johanne, Gail…thank you so much! It is such an honor to be on this path with you!
Comment by Kristin — June 20, 2012 @ 11:36 am