Hello and a happy new year.
Whether or not you celebrate a new year now, or perhaps in Spring when the world’s energy naturally builds, I for one can’t help but get caught up in the freshness of January. I think because December is such a full-on season socially, once it gets to New Year I inevitably begin reflecting on some of my choices over the past 12 months, and perhaps setting one or two intentions for the months ahead.
As I sat in front of the fire on New Year’s Eve, looking back over my journal, I realised how often I’d written the words “I feel overwhelmed”. I noticed just how tired I felt in that moment, after weeks of festive social expectations too. It became clear that many of those choices were at complete odds with how I want to live – and with what I want to share through my ceramics.
If you’re particularly introverted like me, perhaps you can feel it too – how ready you are to increase your “no’s”, and to live aligned with the energy you naturally have, regardless of what others are managing and achieving.
So although I’m not setting any resolutions, I am gifting myself a theme of self trust this year. Sitting ever more comfortably in the knowing that how I feel and what I want are right for me. Trusting that moving slowly through the year – perhaps making fewer pieces because I’m in the woods wandering and daydreaming more, will allow the work itself to embody alignment and connection with oneself and the natural world more strongly.
What I’m allowing into my 2026 is:
- So much time in nature that you might wonder when I’m actually getting any work done! But while I’m pottering through the woods, dunking in the waters and choosing the quiet paths where I tend to see the deer, there’s so much happening internally. So much regulation that allows inspiration to flow. And sometimes, a sketchbook comes out to capture something that calls to me, which inevitably finds its way into a new piece of work.
- Saying no more. If you know me well, you’ll know I’m a natural hermit. I could probably go a month or two without much company. I don’t do well in groups, and certainly not in the evenings, preferring to hunker down whatever the time of year. I deeply love my own company and that of animals, and yearn for it regularly. I do, however, feel uplifted by one-to-one, deep conversations, and I’m grateful for the small number of friends with whom I can share that. It can be hard to know how to cut back on social commitments when I’m already quite strict with myself – but there’s always room for a little tinkering. For honouring who I am exactly as I am, and truly checking in with myself before saying yes.
I wonder if, as you’re reading this, you might be similar – requiring a lot of quiet and alone time, and deeply fuelled by nature? When I look around, I sometimes feel alone in that way. But I suspect there are a few of us recuperating at this time of year, honouring the silence we need in order to be our true selves this year.
Thank you for being here,
With warmth,
Marie