Plettenberg Bay.
6 January, 2025.
We have been in Storm River today, walking a difficult trail to visit the resting place of Charl’s Opa’s ashes. His name is Andries and Maximus has his middle name.
The trail through waterfalls and high stairs pushed us all to the limits physically as a family, but the suspension bridge at the end was worth it. The view, the rounded rocks from years of shaping and the fresh water flowing off the mountain ranges.
Nature truly has a way of resetting our internal clock, to find rhythms of eternal perspective. I love to write at this time of year, it is a liminal space between Christmas and New Year, that holds hope. Like a Monday morning alarm clock, asking that we begin again.
Scripture promises that every new day holds within it promises of good hope. Moments where we can wipe the slate with forgiveness and find new pathways forward. This year’s journaling pages, have worksheets that are designed for this new reset. Opportunities where you can print out one page and find an eternal mindset for a blank page of tomorrow. Simplify, was designed to help you reset at any point of the year, to find the perspective needed.
After a long day of hiking and driving across the garden route, we have arrived in Jeffery’s Bay. Each night we have checked into little accomodations across South Africa. Today’s house is special. It is full of eccentric, local, antique artwork and the welcome WhatsApp message included a curated playlist which enhanced the glass of port left on the sideboard to welcome weary travellers home.
I’ve always dreamed of having my own writers retreat. A place with curated artwork, simple furniture and a place to welcome creative sojourner’s to reflect, to find perspective. I find myself dreaming of this future place, when I have some space to think about the future. I long to host people with a sense of possibility and beauty. I want to help people to retreat, write and begin again. Would you like to go on a retreat with me and some friends soon? I’ve been dreaming about it.
I grew up in a house that was filled with hospitality. Family was the focus, with friends spilling out of each nook. My mother is a great cook, who loves to set a table for conversation. She has modelled the power of an open door and the healing gift of allowing people to rest, for hope in her home.
Imagine a place where a song list, creates the ambience for inspiration and writing. Although this curated moment, is one of beauty and possibility, we each have the potential to host personal retreats for ourselves.
Pour a cup of tea, pull out a journal, print out one worksheet from Simplify and start to be honest with yourself on a page. Writing heals. I have coached many people who have found new stories, by processing the ones where we are stuck. Journaling helps you exit the roundabout in your mind, to find new ways forward.
Rituals help! They are little moments like pouring a cup of tea, reframing the critical voice within and setting a new page of space for new chapters to be written.
Although my dream of having a writers retreat, in the forrest of South Western Australia has not come true, I have curated a song list for your personal retreat. A simple reminder; life does not need to be perfect to write for insight and hope.
Light a candle, pull out an old journal, grab any pen you can find, set a timer for 15 minutes and just write. Don’t edit as you go, give yourself permission to be awkward and be honest.
Be brutally honest.
Say the things you don’t want to say.
Let it fall out on a page.
And breathe deeper than yesterday.
A new day is dawning. Mercies are found in this place of surrender. It is time to do something different in 2025.
Creatively Yours,
