Dear Reader,

I want to say sorry for not having written out-loud for so long.  I’ve just checked; 1st October 2023 – Sparrowhawk.  Where did that time go?  Another year gone.

Life has been going on, as it does.  Work, kids, friends, house, health.  I am lucky to have so much, so many.  I am truly grateful for all that I have, all that I am.

I have also been writing behind the scenes.  I am a dairy writer, a scribbler, a letter writer, always have been.  But I have also been writing for a Creative Writing Master with the Open University which I have just completed.  Writing for the course meant that my attention went there and I couldn’t share that writing until it had been marked.  Now tis done so I can share.

The collection of poems is called Farmotherlands and is a mixture of memory and moment, my family and the land.  It is a testimony to my mum and her side of the family.  It is love.

So when I was reflecting on the new year, the winter solstice, endings and new beginnings, I did something different from the New Year blogs I wrote in 2014, 2019, and 2020.

I asked myself what I wished for; imagined myself my own fairy godmother and listed my wishes, no restrictions to three.

I wish for myself many things; love, health, creativity…

Then I got really specific…and one of those specificities is to publish Farmotherlands and have a book launch for it.  I have self-published before and have also had Into The Woods published by Middle Farm Press and launched at Booka.  My wish is to find a home for my poems.

And this is the bit I am bad at; reaching out to people to say ‘here I am’, ‘look at me’.  But I did over new year and had three poems published by Hazel Press: https://hazelpress.co.uk/2024/01/julie-leoni-2/ .

And I have entered competitions, sent poems out to agents, publishers…all of which means I have to accept rejection, for that is the risk…to reach and fail.  But there is a risk in not reaching at all.  In not wishing at all.

So I claim my wanting in 2024. Knowing that to reach for the wanting, I will need to let go of what is not part of that, what no longer serves me, what I have outgrown, and that there will be pain and loss in that.  But in letting go, I make space and give energy for the new to grow.

None of what I want costs money, uses the earth’s resources, exploits or harms others, but the wishes require effort, determination, risk and putting myself out there, daring to fail.

Because as Roosevelt said:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again… who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

So I invite you to join me in naming your wishes for yourself and the world for 2024 and then to put the effort and hours, mindfulness and stillness, focus and full-heartedness, energy, resilience, perseverance, grit and humility into granting yourself your wanting.

Knowing you might fail, but daring greatly.

So if any of you like the poems above and have any contacts in publishing who might be able to help my poems find a home, please let me know and if I can help you with your wishes, ask.

Wishing you your soul-searching-heart-longing-meaning-making-rooted-winged-radiant wishes for 2024.

Julie

xx

New Year Day swimmers!

 

.

 

If you enjoyed reading this please share it with friends. You might also be interested in talking to me about coaching , or maybe try some of my online courses (some are free), or treat yourself to a climate protecting pamper with vegan friendly, organic Tropic which supports the planting of forests and education in deprived areas.
Thanks for being here.
Julie