An Invitation From Karen Nebe: A New Beginning

“Beginning well or beginning poorly, what is important is simply to begin…”

 As I reflect on these wise words from the poet and philosopher, David Whyte, I am aware that sitting down to write to you takes some mood manoeuvring from anxiety to courage. I believe my old coping mechanism of perfectionism has a way of getting in my way and beginning poorly doesn’t feel like an option! I’d like to be clear with what I have to share and I want it to be meaningful. It’s by no means perfect (according to my standards) and I continue to work with myself, AND it’s a beginning.

I would have liked to have had this out to you before the end of the year and unfortunately my body was not having any of it and so I let it be. I listened and I chose to rest as best I could.

I hope that you too have made the choice to rest and to practice being tender with yourself; and that your beginning is a gentle one.

In the last few days I have taken some time to reflect on the past year and begin gaining clarity on what matters most for me and what I want o cultivate more of.

Although I had begun a reflection on 2021 before my last retreat of the year, I made a request of a dear friend and colleague, Gail Schoeman and she kindly invited me to make use of her end of year reflection process as a prompt.I can highly recommend this process if you haven’t as yet made space for an end of year ritual.

As I was immersed in the art process I began to realise that although I experienced 2021 as a challenging year (as it has been for most), I also experienced a very rich, full and very rewarding year. Initially I was focused on my physical challenges, which does tend to lead me into stress response and I feel quite sad and depleted – AND then my art process began to reveal lightness, beauty and joy. As I witnessed this, something switched on inside my body (I activated my calm response) and my energy and mood began to change. I realised that my process was highlighting all the connection, colour, gratitude, open hearted tenderness that I had experienced in 2021 and so the art process transformed into what I care most about and this is what I would like to cultivate more of.

It’s quite remarkable what can emerge from immersing yourself in an art process. I see this all the time on my retreats. This does not mean I won’t slip back into survival mode and give myself permission to feel the pain that comes with my losses and challenges AND it does mean that I have ways of coming back to centre and into the present moment – intuitive art-making being one practice and being in nature, the other.

This is the art work that emerged. I have a feeling it will continue to change, as I do.