Spell Ingredients for Spring
Sunshine, flowers, & potential
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There are colourful flowers and blossoming trees in my garden and I cannot stop taking pictures of them. Spring always feels refreshing and it’s so needed. I usually love Winter. I like the colder nights, I like layers of blankets and clothing, I like the possibility of snow. But this year felt much more bleak than previous years. Those golden days where you’re wrapped up warm but the sun is shining were in very short supply. Mostly it was windy and rainy. Like break your garden gate windy.
This Spring has felt well-deserved after such a winter. Full of potential for fun and joy and helping others. Here’s what’s going into my Spring Spell.
A whole platter of trying new things —
I want to feast on the fear that stops me from trying new things. Whether it’s a new crochet technique, or creating my first poetry chapbook, or even trying out photography - thank you to my local library for the book on portraits. I want to gobble up all the anxiety and the shame and the “what if it doesn’t work out?”
All that will be left is my imperfect creation and it will be perfect to me because I made it.
A handful of helping —
Similar to my Spell Ingredients for February, I want to help others this Spring after feeling that paralysing stresss of “what is the world coming to?!”
Last month, I donated about 5 bags/boxes to a local charity that supports those fleeing violence. It was easy to do and, when I saw the photo of a full donations table that the charity posted later that day, it felt so good to have helped others in a small way.
A basketful of banned books —
Index on Censorship recently published a bleak news article on book banning in the UK, where a school librarian in the Greater Manchester area faced disciplinary action after she stocked Laura Bates book, Men Who Hate Women. They go on to detail how around 200 books were pulled off the school libary shelves - many around feminism, racism, neuro-divergency, and queerness.
Banned Book Week isn’t until October but it seems more and more vital to read widely on topics, authors, and languages. First up on my list is Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin - following a gay Taiwanese student as she yearns for an older woman.
What’s on your list for Spring? Whatever you choose, I hope you have a magical season ahead.
