Carhartts and Cashmere

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My life has always skirted the edges of grit and elegance. I like pretty. I like soft. And I love to get dirty. This time of year, my Carhartts hang on a nail in the mudroom between wears. What’s the point of washing the garden out so soon? I am committed to playing in the dirt til the planting and spring weeding is done.

Today a frost lays on the ground. After two weeks in the 60’s, my little plants eye me from the garden with silver in their hair. No weather keeps me from them. I switch pants, but my top stays put, and I find myself weeding and watering in my best sweater. Cashmere is so cozy! And it’s the safest way to let goats play in the garden.

This outer manifestation matches my inner experience. I welcome the opportunity to allow all of my emotions, even the deeply uncomfortable ones, safe passage through by body-being. I’m absolutely up for the dirty work, the close contact with my biology in the electrical impulses and chemical cocktails of rage, fear, and grief. I will make space for this. I will seek quiet and protected, beautiful locales — my closet (we have a small house), my garden, the forest — to rage and cry. I create or locate such space with reverence for my sacred experience. I commit to being in the muck of it until the sun comes out, and I laugh at the mess I’ve been playing in. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to embody emotions, and I love my choice to do it daily.

Carhartts and cashmere, inside and out. Let’s do this blessed work as individuals and as a community. So much is growing. You in?