A Glimpse of Spring in Bristol
As I write this, I can see a stretch of blue sky, and yesterday there was a definite glimpse of spring here in Bristol (ooooft do we need it!). Blossom is just beginning on the cherry trees, magnolia buds thickening, willows softening at their tips. So, so needed.
I was walking along the river, and the birds were louder than usual - bright and insistent. I can’t hear birds from my house on a busy main road, so it felt like a small, seasonal gift.
What Aliveness Feels Like
What struck me most, though, was what was happening in me. My attention was being pulled outward, my skin alive to the damp earth and sweetness in the air, my eyes catching light and colour. My whole system orienting beyond itself. And I thought - yes! This is Aliveness.
Aliveness is not rigid or forced. It doesn’t need to be propped up or over-efforted. It pulses, it yields, it breathes, it responds. It rises and falls, stretches and softens, expands without strain. To be alive is to be animated - joyous, curious, ecstatic, angry, and also yielding, tender, and responsive. This is what our bodies know how to do when we allow them space to follow their own rhythm.
I talk about this all the time - how we are not meant only for soothing and settling, but also for expansion and expression. Healing isn’t the end point; it’s part of a wider rhythm that includes vitality, creativity, play. Yesterday felt like the season gently underlining that truth.
Winter and Spring
Winter asks something important of us: slowness, repair, containment. Many of us have been doing that work (if we’re able), learning to slow, to soften, to stay. But Spring arrives and reminds us that contraction - wintering - is not the opposite of aliveness; it’s what allows us to hold more of it.
The soft stirrings of Spring - the sunlight hitting the water, buds swelling on branches, birdsong carrying farther than usual - pull us outward. They invite curiosity, movement, and attention to our senses. Reconnecting with the world around us, with our own bodies, is one of the most potent ways to bring aliveness back.
Moving Into Spring
This Spring, I’ll be exploring that energy in She Moves with the Seasons, a six-week journey of curiosity, skin, reach, and play. Gentle, expansive, alive. A space to follow your instincts without forcing growth, to move with presence, to reconnect with your own aliveness.
To be alive is to feel both the pulse and the pause, the stretch and the softening, the invitation and the yielding. If your body or your curiosity is stirring, I’d love for you to move, explore, and play with me this spring.
A Few Invitations to Notice
Where in your body are you feeling the stirrings of Spring? A pulse, a stretch, a warmth?
What small movements or stretches could invite curiosity, reach, or play today?
How might you reconnect with your senses, sight, touch, smell, sound, in ways that bring aliveness back into your day?
Take a moment to notice, breathe, and follow what your body already knows. Spring is here, gently calling us outward.