I’m not sure how 2023 got away from me, but somehow (in the way years do as you get older and time gets weirder) it did. It was a wonderful year. Full. Adventurous. Loving. But one minute it was here, and the next (nearly) gone.
I wound up 2023. Most of my coaching sessions were done before Christmas, except for a couple I squeezed in that strange week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve that I desperately hoped I remembered because every day that week is like Sunday, leftovers, random activities, visitors and sleep ins. I coached a lot more this year than I expected. I’ve not done a single speck of marketing, and also (obviously) didn’t do much on social media or write many blogs. Or to be honest write publicly much at all. The writing I did do I did in my head, or my journal, in the privacy of my own sphere. That seemed enough. Some of it was also that I just couldn’t face the opinions of people on social media whose opinions varied to mine, and were (are) always the ones who comment. It felt too hard to believe what I believed in an outward facing way, without seeming to stir up the “non-believers” and having to justify myself. I didn’t respond usually, but would have a massive internal crisis, talk to my husband about it a lot, and then go quiet and do my own thing. Topics included vaccines, racism, white supremacy, the patriarchy, The Voice to Parliament and I’m sure there’s more but in an effort not to encourage anyone to respond to me with their opinion I’ll just leave it at that.
I know it’s lame not to speak out for what I believe in. But at the same time, I also don’t want to get distracted by the fight. I know what I believe. I do many things to support many of the humans in my world, and the wider world and although I could do more (because we always can right?) fighting with people on the internet it’s not one of the ways I choose to spend my time. Doing more might (would) look like writing more. And yet I say this over and over again and then choose to clean the house instead. This is a big deal. I’m determined to change this in 2024 (can you remind me?).
We just got a puppy. She a gold Labrador, named Cookie, and she’s delicious. In 2023 we lost my favourite bunny, Bean, our mad dog, Maggie, and then our old dog, Missy. And then, Nana the weiro (cockatiel) escaped for the second time, and although I though we got him back it turns out that the shrieking bird who lives in his cage is not-Nana. He’s getting happier, and starting to sing and he was definitely a caged bird and its safer here than out in the wild getting belted by crows. So he’s new too, but not quite as delicious as a puppy. She (the puppy) requires additional time and attention and house-cleaning, so that works. However she also sleeps a lot and right now she’s asleep and all the shredded cardboard, leaves and sticks from the garden and water from the water bowl that she likes to dig out and lie in when she’s hot, is all cleaned up. And our kids (half adults now) just settled into this year so much more easily, and although (or perhaps because) I made myself more available, I was needed less. And I went away a lot more. Which no-one in my house (except me) loves as much me, but by the end of 2023 we had it nailed.
I went to the US again!!! Twice in fact. Doing the Relationship Code event in California. It was really cool to see this thing we do in another context, and it be just as valuable and transformational and important as when we do it in Perth. Perhaps I played it down in my mind because Perth seems so far from the rest of the world most of the time and I wondered if what I was doing was as great as I thought or just because we were doing it in the most isolated city in the world, and didn’t know any different. Now I’ve seen it happening though, I can say it is great work. so that’s a vibe. And I’m mad about San Diego.
Inward retreat was created with Tracy and Pam, even better and more glorious than the last. At Ecobeach Wilderness Retreat just south of Broome. A bucket list location that just unfolded in the magical way dreams do when you don’t keep putting them aside. The retreat was on the back of my first US trip, and combined with the decision to cut out coffee whilst jet-lagged and having an upper respiratory infection from travel/planes/blocks to the throat chakra from not speaking up enough about the things that matter to me. My throat chakra gets all activated by any kind of breath work, meditation, relaxation part of the yoga class and causes me to cough uncontrollably until I tell my chakra to shut the *F* up with the coughing and I promise to have all the necessary brave conversations required. Nothing like a public coughing fit in the days (kinda) post a respiratory pandemic to get you to speak up. Anyway, the coffee detox was so hideous I have not gotten back into coffee – and ceremonial cacao is now the daily, heart opening beverage of choice. Retreat was the perfect combination of ritual, women, nature, astounding sunsets, nourishing food, yoga, breath work and the ocean. It’s happening again in 2024 t00. It’s time x
And I went to Melbourne for a weekend to visit our oldest daughter, because suddenly weekends to Melbourne aren’t an impossibly ridiculous possibility. The joy of being able to spend time with the people you love, and it just happening because it can. And my love and I went on another lifetime experience to Kununurra and Berkeley River Lodge, Miwa Country. There aren’t really words for how spectacular it was. How breathtaking and beyond description. How those moments in time in the landscape that makes up this country in which we are so honoured to live. I tried to capture it all in photographs, but somehow there will never be enough, and they will also never quite encapsulate it all.
And there’s more. All the moments in time with our kids, with our family and friends. Countless people, and meals, and breakfasts out, catch ups and arguments (especially on the internet) and a world that takes your breath away and breaks your heart in the next moment. If I wrote more then I wouldn’t be so worried about missed anything, and perhaps the opinions on the internet wouldn’t irk me so much? Or perhaps I’ll always be bothered, but can accept it will happen and I could just write anyway?
Here’s to 2024. Full of risks and rewards.
