Preparing for 2024 the Sacred Unplanning Way
Gently reflecting on the turning of the year
Four years ago, I published my first nonfiction book, the Sacred Unplanning Workbook. This emerged from a sweet workshop I used to host online, and this year these concepts have bubbled back up into my heart.
This year’s precipice feels more uncertain than ever, with a world roiling and a thundering call, deep in my belly, to rise up as a leader of sacred feminine remembering.
It’s from that place that I feel inspired to revisit this body of work, and host a virtual workshop in January 2024 based on this book. However, this time I will be weaving in the world of plants and flower essences, which are tools and wisdom I’ve been working with since the last time I offered a guided session of Sacred Unplanning.
Because I haven’t written about Sacred Unplanning in quite some time, I wanted to offer a few droplets of inspiration, along with invitations you can work with right now.
I recognize that as we approach the Winter Solstice and holiday season, your plate may be overflowing with commitments, social gatherings, and a lengthy list of gifts to purchase or travel plans to finalize.
I never want to add to that overflowing plate, but instead I hope to offer a warm and loving reminder to reclaim a quiet moment, perhaps in the early morning or around a fire in the evening, to nourish your creative desires with the most valuable gift any of us can offer: our love and attention.
Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.
Buddha
December is a time to take stock, and it seems a uniquely perfect time to think about the deeper roots of your legacy in this lifetime.
I find myself sitting with the biggest questions right now…
What do I want to be known for?
What is the most sacred and aligned work for me right now?
How am I spending my most precious resources - my time, energy, and attention?
What will I be letting go of to make space for what matters most?
But I want to offer an important guardrail with these invitations to reflect on what’s alive within you right now, and where you are setting your compass. Too often, the most visionary, compassionate, and empathetic hearts will use these questions to measure ourselves against an invisible yardstick that we can never match.
Keep your humanity at the center, and prioritize your most intimate circles of influence when thinking about how you spend your energy.
So please, hold these invitations lightly. These are my real thoughts, illuminated here in hopes you’ll understand my meaning:
Overwhelming: write a life-changing book that encompasses everything about my work in the world
Gentle: publish my small book of poetry, without any attachment to sales or income
Overwhelming: rebrand and relaunch all my signature courses, and move them to a new teaching platform
Gentle: offer my existing signature courses without making any unnecessary technical changes, and focus instead on reaching new communities with my work
As 2023 winds to a close, I have a paper trail of desires that didn’t come to fruition, and projects I didn’t complete on deadline. I could focus on this, and spend my energy making myself feel bad for these so-called failures.
Or, I can follow my own best advice and claim this year as yet another twelve months of love, growth, and anchoring into my wisest self.
I’ll leave you for now with these words from that book I wrote four years ago:
“For all your creative endeavors, take time along the way to define your own measures of success.”
Perhaps the most nourishing thing to consider right now is how to measure our own success. For me, it’s my children and family above all else. Then comes my relationship to the green world and my personal growth as a writer, witch, and flower essence practioner.
I’ll be letting go of work and habits that make me feel exhausted, and prioritizing things that bring me a sense of vitality, joy, and creative fulfillment.
This is my evolving measurement of success, and I’d love to know what yours might be. Maybe we can share with one another, offering inspiration and an uplifting cross-pollination of ideas in the comments…
Leah Kent is a green witch and flower essence practitioner who drums before writing. Officially a book coach and author who helps wisdom keepers and visionaries write and publish transformational books about their work in the world.
Order your copy of Awakening the Visionary Voice.