Karen Westwood Joyous Women

Happy Spring, Happy Easter, Happy new season of hope. Love to all!

I love this so much ~ Such a sweet moment of joy & hope!

https://hbr.org/20//that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief

NONE OF US ARE IMMUNE~~ It’s going to be okay. It really is. We will face this situation together with love, humour and patience. ... We will weep together, we will laugh together. We will discover togetherness in our apartness. And the worst of it will end one day. And we will have learned so much by then. We will now be called to face very difficult feelings inside of us. Fear. Grief. The loss of an old way of life. Our devastated plans. We will learn to face ourselves. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Nowhere to go except within. A sacred quarantine. We will learn to face our boredom. Our restlessness. The part of us that wants to be somewhere else, with someone else, doing something else, having some other experience, in some other Now, living in some other life. We will let go of the wonderful future we had planned. We will let the fantasy future die, release it, and grieve it. We will return to the solidity and warmth of the present. We will make the present into our home. We will begin again, here, build a new house on new soil. We will explore a new way of life. Strange, at first. But full of possibility. Slower. Kinder. Quieter. We will talk to each other honestly about death, and life, and impermanence, and how we feel about all the changes that have come to us and our loved ones. We will learn to value life a little more. Yes, perhaps we will learn to value life a little more. And live with our hearts cracked slightly open to the elements. And lean into uncertainty, and find our salvation there. None of us are immune to change. To rupture. To the shattering of old, familiar forms. This is the way of things, this has always been the way of things. From this perspective, nothing has gone wrong. Crisis simply means turning point, and none of us are immune from the turning. The breaking of the old makes way for the birth of new. It has always been this way. Love. Humour. Patience. With these things, we will come through. Stronger than before. Renewed. Ready. I am sending you all my love, my friends.~ ~Jeff Foster

Peace of Wild Things -Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,... I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. See more

This will be a gorgeous and nurturing ritual for the darkest day of the year. Join us.

If you are yearning to make the holidays more about ease, quality time, love & fun ~ this is for you ~ A festive at-home session for mothers & daughters to do together, or moms could do on their own (would be great for ages 8 and up, older daughters too!) This activity will take around 45 min but the results will RADIATE throughout December.... You will set intentions, get ideas, and decide how you want the holiday season to look and feel! Includes: 20 minute video AND printable journaling play sheets (sheets for mothers created by Karen Westwood/mother and sheets for daughters created by Olivia/daughter) Delivered by email.

There is something that I want to say, need to say. I respect with all my heart that this is a time to listen, but it is also a time to speak up and take a stand. To be honest, I have not known how to do this yet.... I fully realize that simply liking posts that cry for justice, or putting up a black screen are tiny supportive gestures, but are no where near enough. I have had to shift and twist my thinking and sit in discomfort, as many of us are, before I could come to something that even rings slightly helpful or true but here it is~ I believe that we are all one. I always have. I write it and speak it and teach it constantly. But here is what I have had to admit to myself this week: Though I believe that we are all one with my whole being and always have and always will, as it feels like the only universal truth that truly matters ~ It is too easy for me to say. I have had my share of obstacles in this life. I have experienced grief, despair, periods of deep sadness, betrayals, fear, things that every human being on this planet at one time or another feels. But I have never been made to feel that my life doesn’t matter. Ever. So for me to say that we are all one and connected probably rings a bit hollow until every person feels that their life matters. Black lives matter. Indigenous lives matter. Period. And my name is Karen.

#blackoutTuesday #westandwithyou