Happy New Year! I hope you all ended the year in style – whether that meant dancing drunkenly in your bikini to The Backstreet Boys or cuddling on the couch with your loved ones and slipping quietly into bed at 9:30. I was obviously part of the latter crew! This little weekend at the arse end of 2017 has been a rather challenging one. We are renting out our house for the month of January on Air BnB and so the past two days have involved moving into our in-law’s house. If I thought moving whilst pregnant was hard, well moving with a clingy six month old baby is next level tough. Yesterday, surrounded by boxes and mess, while simultaneously trying to cook dinner and distract an increasingly niggly Immy-pie, I had a minor all-fall-down. Andrew was busy at our house, cleaning and setting up for the guests, and I was at my in-laws feeling very unsettled. Although I had taken some delicious alone time the morning to write my intentions for 2018 whilst Immy napped, she had barely slept since and I was exhausted. On top of it all, I had been planning to burn the beautiful smudge stick I had ordered from Ritual Kind to clear both our family and our space for the new year, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I have a horrible feeling that the cleaner may have thrown it out along with my other dried flowers. I was so angry at Andrew for not making sure it left our house safely. I may have said some horrible things. At the same time, I was fully aware that I was in one of those moments where I should step back and rather than moan, count my blessings and be grateful for what I have.

But I didn’t. I wanted to wallow properly in my “woe is me” and so I poured the biggest glass of wine and sent a couple of moany voice notes to various people who might give a damn.  Some replied and some didn’t, but just the act of getting everything off my chest, out of my mouth and into the open, helped. My friend Sarah replied with such wonderful clarity. She said that I should think of this month as being a detox from our house; from our old patterns and mess – an opportunity to cleanse our space and sort out our shit. And yes, just like any detox, it will be uncomfortable at first -fraught with headaches and queasiness. But by the end of the month, we will be light and revitalised and rested and ready to move back into our space with hopefully a lot less of the baggage than we left with. Imagine how grateful we will be to be back in our home with all our familiar spots and luxuries! (And, let’s be honest, my in-laws place is not half bad. It may be a little smaller, but the kitchen is bigger, the garden beautiful, and the view spectacular. I don’t get to look out onto the Simonsberg mountains from my bed at home, after all!)

I was worried that starting 2018 off in a new and unfamiliar space surrounded by boxes might be a bad way to begin the year, but perhaps a space and home detox is just what I need to get myself ready for a year I have high hopes for. This month I’m getting rid of anything that no longer serves us or Imogen (sheesh, babies can collect so much stuff so quickly). I want to sort out a recycling and composting system for when we move home, sort through my clothes and shoes and beauty products and just get everything streamlined and prepared for the year we have ahead of us. I don’t want to keep tripping over any of the heavy things, both literal and metaphorical, in my way.

So perhaps your year hasn’t started off as you hoped (I was hoping for yoga on the lawn, but god knows where my mat or pants are), but maybe you can see the glory in the gory, and remember that every new day is a new beginning and a chance for setting new intentions. Hell, if you’re a tired mom like me, then every little nap is a new beginning and a chance for you to connect with your self – whether that be meditating whilst cleaning the dishes, reading your book or cooking a nourishing meal. And if you forget all of the above, or your child refuses to nap, pour yourself a glass of wine and chat to an old friend who may just have a different perspective on your situation, and who may just gift you a beautiful little nugget of wisdom to bring you back to a kinder reality. Sometimes letting it out is the best way to get to letting it go.

All my love,

Kx

Image: via Natalie at @RitualKind (who makes the prettiest smudge sticks in all of the lands!)