This week, as the year turned through the equinoxes, Spring in the Northern, Autumn in the Southern, as the axis of time and light shifted, I was deep into two weeks of teaching, and noticing the shifts. I facilitate a module called ‘Design your Purposeful Life’ in University College Dublin’s Innovation Academy, one week on campus, and then another iteration online. It is a wonderfully rich, and sometimes intense programme, supporting students to use design, creative and reflective skills to think about their career and life as a whole. Through a series of activities and prompts, they are invited to examine their core values, skills, interests, career plans and ways to sustain a life of meaning for them, in whatever way they choose to define it.
Every morning, I begin by asking a simple question. ‘Can you name something beautiful or noteworthy you noticed in the last 24 hours? At first, a cringe-worthy silence. Then the blank stares. I have trained myself to be comfortable with this, and I wait. Then it starts.
‘Daffodils’.
‘The trees coming into leaf’.
‘Birdsong’.
‘The Light’.
‘More Daffodils’
‘The Light’.
‘The Light’.
‘The Light’.
Each morning I ask them the same question. Still the silence, but less of the blank stares. They are remembering.
‘Daffodils’.
‘My friends’.
‘The sunset last night’.
‘The sunlight is morning’.
The next morning, the same again, then again.
It’s always about the light.
On the last morning of the course, I ask them, ‘What is the value of doing this?’
The silence again. They are thinking.
Then one voice. ‘I’m noticing more of my surroundings’
Then the cascade.
‘I’ve turned off my headphones and I’m listening’.
‘I’m realising how much I enjoy time in nature’.
‘I’m remembering to listen for the birds’.
I often get goosebumps when their responses start flooding in, because I can sense: these tiny moments of noticing, are also moments of awakening to what is alive and enlivening, to the world speaking in the language of song and bloom, and to themselves.
At the end of the week, I leave them with a simple encouragement.
‘Every morning, I invite you to ask yourself the same question. What is one thing beautiful or noteworthy I noticed in the last 24 hours? Then do it the next day, and the next and the next. Then notice what continues to happen.
Which is exactly my invite to you this week.
‘What is one thing beautiful or noteworthy you noticed in the last 24 hours?’
Then do it again, and again, and again.
With that, I’ve had my head in a computer for much of the week, and now I need trees and birdsong. I need the noticing.
Feel free to leave a response in the comments below.
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Missed the Spring Equinox Post and Guide?
I’ve been writing about the transition across the Spring Equinox and I made a special Guidebook, meditation and playlist.
Coming up on The Wild Edge.
Lots!
Next week, another Owl Hour - which is our creative practice circle, and lots more in April, along with our next poetry Salon.
Next week, I’ll also have my March edition of The Library of Interesting Things, and the following week I’ll be continuing my ‘Non-Definitive Guide to Staying Sane in an Age of Overwhelm’.
(Paid members: You will find links in our ‘Notice Board’, and I’ll post in the Chat on the day of the event)
March 2025
25th March, Tues, 8-9pm GMT: Owl Hour- Creative Practice
April 2025 (please note daylight saving changes)
10th April, Thursday 8-9pm GMT+1/ Irish Time: Owl Hour- Creative Practice
13th April, Sunday, 6-7pm GMT+1/ Irish Time: Poetry Salon
24th April, Thursday 8-9pm GMT+1/ Irish Time: Owl Hour- Creative Practice
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